


Forming alliances

by smkkbert



Series: Old days, new hope [3]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bratva, F/F, F/M, Felicity as Green Arrow, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-04-13 23:35:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4541787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smkkbert/pseuds/smkkbert
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Since Robert sens Oliver and her on a business trip, Felicity uses the chance to cross another name off her list of people she needs to save. Trying to save Anatoli, she tries to convince the Bratva to help save their leader. Unfortunately, things are not going as she has hoped until unexpected help arrives. Aside from that Felicity tries to work on her relationship to Oliver, but soon finds that Oliver's trust and patience seems to crumble.</p><p>This is a sequel to "Second chances" and "Recreating his Legacy".<br/>(I am not exactly happy with the title, but what can I say? I have finished writing the chapter two days ago and can't come up with a title, so I decided to name the parts after Felicity's steps to find stability in her new/old life.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Quietly Felicity hummed along to the song on the radio while tapping the rhythm with her fingertips on the steering wheel. It was the first time in two weeks that she could actually take a minute to just breathe and even relax a little. When the song ended, she rested her fingers around the steering wheel and took in a deep breath, holding it for a few seconds before she exhaled.

Those last two weeks had been very busy. In addition to her work at QC she had worked on taking some criminals down. Luckily, those had been easier cases, nothing too bad. Still, it had taken a lot of her time and the little free time she had had left then had been spent with training. Long running routes with lot of obstacles and just as long sessions of strength training had been part of her daily routine. At least the muscle ache had partly subsided.

Well, hopefully all the trouble was being worthwhile. The Green Arrow had become a quite popular figure lately. The media were calling her a guardian angel and praised her non-violent methods of keeping the city safe by finding the necessary information to get criminals arrested by the police. That being said, they of course assumed that the only reason the Green Arrow was hiding behind computers was the fact that hacking wasn’t exactly legal.  
Of course they couldn’t know that Felicity didn’t plan on staying behind those computers. She was just lucky that so far she had been able to deal with most of the criminals from behind them.

Malcolm Merlyn had been the great exception, but the League had taken on the job of eliminating him. Nobody associated his death with the Green Arrow. Felicity shook her head to get rid of the thoughts on Merlyn. His death still gave her stomach cramps. The thought of being the one who had asked the League to kill him had made it hard to look into her mirror for some time.

It had been necessary, though. She knew that. Felicity had gone through these thoughts again and again, but still they hadn’t back off completely. They were still there, telling her that she had failed in some way and all the criminals she was going to take out without killing them weren’t going to right the wrong she had done.

But those black thoughts were becoming rarer with each passing day. Because the more time she spent with Oliver, the more she seemed to realize that Malcolm Merlyn’s death had been the only way to save the man that she loved as well as his father and Sara. They were safe because Malcolm Merlyn was dead. Besides, Felicity highly doubted that the League had killed Merlyn only because she had told them to. They had done it with or without her order.

So Felicity tried to focus more on the good she had done yet and the good she would hopefully manage to do in the future.

And of course she tried to enjoy her relationship with Oliver. Since her time travel a lot of things had happened. After their bad start they had somehow managed to build a real relationship. This wasn’t as it had been before her time travel when longing gazes and one passionate night together had been all they had had. No, they were having a real relationship as in sending each other sweet, little messages during the day and saying telling each other ‘I love you’. They were still keeping it a secret at QC, but that had more to do with the fact that Felicity didn’t want everyone to believe that she had only gotten a job there because she was dating the heir to the company.

They couldn’t keep it a secret much longer, though. Felicity knew that. Robert’s assistant Emily had realized that there was something going on between them already, Felicity thought with a sigh, glancing at the files on the seat next to her. Just when Felicity had been about to leave her office to go home, Emily had come down to the IT-department, asking her to bring Robert some files with contracts for a meeting tomorrow morning. Emily had forgotten to give Robert the files before he had left and since she had a date, she didn’t have the time to drive to the Queen’s mansions. “Besides, I guess you’re going there anyway, right?” she had asked with a teasing wink.

It was Oliver’s fault she had noticed that there was something going on between them. Those last two weeks he had been snowed under with work, so they barely had had time to see each other, even had to quit having dinner together every day. So Oliver had become inventive in finding reasons for Felicity to travel up the eighteen floors to his office, not far from Robert’s. She had been a daily guest, so of course Emily had realized that there was something going on. From her desk in front of Robert’s office she had a perfect view to Oliver’s office. They hadn’t been doing anything revealing there, but still it had probably been suspicious how often she had been there.

Whatever. She had told Sally and her mother anyway. Oliver’s family had known from the beginning and Tommy had become a friend to her. Who cared what the rest of the world was thinking?

Sighing, Felicity leaned her head back.

She still hadn’t told Oliver that she was Green Arrow. She had planned to tell him at least four times, but had decided against it every single time. There was no point in telling him as long as she hadn’t completely figured out how she was going to continue working. Was she doing the field work and if so, then who was going to train her? Was she going to put together a team? As long as she didn’t know any about this, she wasn’t going to tell him. It was giving her stomach cramps, but for now it was the right thing to do.

Besides, right now they had the chance to just be a normal couple, at least as normal as a billionaire and an IT-girl/time travel victim/secretly vigilante could be. In three weeks his college classes would start and it would be interesting to see where that was going to take them.

Maybe if he was home, she would ask him to go out with her, she thought while driving through the entrance gate of the Queen’s mansion. She missed spending time with him outside of Queen Consolidated. And she was hungry. So why not combine dinner with some Oliver-time?

So Felicity parked the car in front of the mansion, took the files from the passenger seat and went to the door. Although she had been with Oliver for a little more than a month now, knocking at the door to the mansion still gave her little heart attacks. But that was mainly because of Moira. Even in this run of time Felicity still felt a shiver run down her spine whenever she was near Oliver’s mother although Moira had barely done anything to deserve that here. She had been quite leery when Felicity had first been at the mansion with Oliver, but that had lessened as time had passed. It was just that everything that had happened before Felicity’s time travel was still ever-present in her memory.

Shaking her head, Felicity took in a deep breath and finally knocked at the door. It didn’t take long till the door was opened and Rasia smiled at her.

“Ms. Felicity,” she said, “what a nice surprise. Mr. Oliver didn’t tell me that he was waiting for you.”

“He wasn’t,” Felicity said hastily, smiling back at her. “I am here to bring Robert some files.”

“Oh, sure, please come in.”

As soon as Rasia opened the door more and Felicity stepped in, she heard loud laughter coming from one of the rooms and hurriedly turned back to Rasia while saying, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know the Queen’s had visitors. How about I’ll give you the files and you’ll give them to Robert when the visitors have left?”

“But I am sure that Mr. Oliver would like to see you.”

“Yes, but-“

“Rasia, what is going on here?” Felicity heard Robert say and her head snapped towards where he was coming out of the dining room. He approached them, smiling at her and saying, “Felicity, what a lovely surprise. Why don’t you come in?”

“Oh, no, I really don’t want to bother you, especially since you seem to have guests,” Felicity explained. “I just wanted to give you some files Emily forgot to give you earlier.”

Robert took the files, glancing at them shortly before handing them over to Rasia. “Rasia, please put these files on my desk and then get us another place setting. Felicity will of course dine with us.”

“Of course, Mr. Queen,” Rasia answered, leaving to put the files away while Robert put an arm around Felicity’s shoulders, leading her to the dining room.

“I’m sorry if I have kept my son busy lately. I guess for a young love like yours it’s not exactly easy to not have that much time together,” Robert explained and smiled when he saw her blushing. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to embarrass you. Moira and Thea are out on a girls’ night and Oliver and I were supposed to spend some time, you know, just father and son, but I thought it would be nice having Tommy here, too, since he is like a second son to me. He brought his girlfriend and her sister with him, so…”

Felicity didn’t hear the rest of the sentence. Instead she spent the last two steps until they reached the dining room, trying to find an excuse to get away from here as soon as possible. Meeting Sara and Laurel again was a bad idea since she had been the one who had confronted Oliver about his bad behavior towards the two sisters which had led to his break-up with both of them. She didn’t know whether they knew about that, but she knew and that was enough to make that meeting awkward. Besides, all women present had at least almost dated Oliver at nearly the same time.

But before she could have come up with anything, Robert was already pushing her into the room, calling everyone’s attention by saying, “Look who I found in the hall, already in the process of leaving us without having said hello?”

Oliver’s, Tommy’s, Sara’s and Laurel’s heads snapped towards her, their eyes focusing on her face, that probably was all red now. Insecurely Felicity bit down on her bottom lip, trying to figure out what to say while everyone started at her. At least she knew now how the animals at the zoo must feel.

When everyone chuckled, her eyes widened and she asked, “Did I say that out loud?”

Nodding, Tommy winked at her while Oliver got up from his chair and approached her. Robert left her side the moment Oliver’s fingers made contact with her hips, pulling her towards him to press a soft kiss to the soft spot right under her ear.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know Laurel and Sara were here,” she whispered as quietly as possible.

“It’s okay,” he whispered before he turned around and said out loud, “Sara, Laurel, this is Felicity.”

“Hi,” the sisters said in chorus while Oliver put the free chair right next to his in place for Felicity and sat then back down on his chair.

An awkward silence settled. Felicity bit her tongue and tried to ignore the prying eyes that stared at her from the other side of the table as much as Laurel and Sara seemed to be trying to hide their nosy gazes from her. What the hell had Robert been thinking? He had probably just tried to be nice by inviting her to this dinner, but he must have known that this was going to be awkward.

“How about I’ll get us some of my best wine while we wait for the dinner to be served?” Robert asked, already getting up. “Felicity, your mother is not going to press charges if I will let you drink a glass of wine, right?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Felicity responded, quietly thinking about how strange that sounded. It had been years since someone had last suggested that she wasn’t allowed to drink alcohol. Well, that had to be the prize of traveling back in time, she guessed.

The room fell back into silence. Felicity kept her eyes down on her hands. This was so, so awkward. It was even more awkward than she had thought his would be because nobody said a word and the only to a certain degree uninvolved person in this mess of (ex-) relationships had left the room.

“Guys, forget everything I ever said about doing double dates,” Tommy finally spoke up, causing everyone’s eyes to turn towards him. “This is so awkward.”

“Very awkward,” Sara confirmed with a nod of her head. “It was awkward before and now it has only become more awkward.”

“No offense,” Laurel hurried to say towards Felicity, poking her sister in the ribs. “It’s just that all of this is still a little weird. It’s weird that my sister and my boyfriend planned to cheat on me and it is weird that I am with my ex-boyfriend’s best friend and it’s especially weird that all of us are still trying to be friends.”

“And even though we are all kind of okay with each other now,” Tommy added, taking Laurel’s hand, “it is still awkward.”

“It is,” Felicity agreed. “And I swear I wouldn’t have just barged in here if Robert hadn’t pushed.”

“That’s Robert,” Sara, Laurel and Tommy said in chorus, making everyone laugh slightly.

“Besides, sooner or later we would have run into each other anyway,” Laurel explained, smiling at Felicity. “Our boyfriends spend a lot of time together, so…”

She gestured with her hands and Felicity nodded. They were probably going to see each other every now and then. So a first meeting had been kind of an overdue as strange as that seemed since Laurel’s and Oliver’s break-up had only happened a little more than a month ago. Still, she was in love with Tommy now and Oliver was with her. Well, and Sara… Okay, Sara did not seem to have a boyfriend right now, but at least she seemed okay with her sister. Being dumped by the same guy must have bound them together.

 “I guess, we just have to find a harmless topic for our conversation tonight,” Sara said. “Any suggestions?”

 

 

 

The evening turned out to not be as bad as it might have been. They avoided every topic that could in any way not be “harmless”. Tommy had talked a lot about the alterations he was making at his club, and Robert told a lot of stories about Tommy’s and Oliver’s childhood. It was then that Felicity realized why Robert had urged her to come in although he had probably known that this was going to be awkward. For Robert Tommy was indeed like a second son and since the awkward relationship between the friends, their girlfriends and Sara was not doing their friendship any good, he was trying to do something about it.

Before her time travel Felicity had often wondered what kind of man Robert had been, Felicity thought while he was saying goodbye to Tommy, Laurel and Sara. Well, she could already tell that he seemed to be a great father. He gave Tommy a hug, telling him to always come by when he needed something since their door was always opened for him.

Two minutes later Robert closed the door after them and turned back towards where Felicity was standing with Oliver, chatting about how the evening had not been as bad as expected.

“I need to talk to the two of you,” he said, pointing his finger at both of them and beckoning them to follow him.

Felicity looked at Oliver in question, but he just winked at her with a grin, took her hand, and together they followed his father into the living room where he gestured them to sit down on the couch while he took a seat in one of the armchairs. For a minute or so he remained silent, just watching the two of them.

“In a few days the subsidiary of Queen Consolidated in Moscow celebrates the tenth anniversary of its foundation. I was supposed to attend, but an important meeting has come in between that. A few months ago I would have suggested that Walter Steele should fly to Moscow and attend the celebrations, but since Oliver has taken over some responsibilities in the company I think this might be a good opportunity for him to prove himself.”

Felicity nodded, taking Oliver’s hand to squeeze his fingers. She smiled at him proudly, but as soon as she looked up into his face, she frowned. Oliver’s eyebrows were raised.

“Okay, why do I feel like I am missing something?” she asked, looking from Oliver to Robert and back to Oliver. “What’s going on here?”

“My dad suggests that we fly to Moscow together to attend the celebration.”

Felicity’s eyes widened and hastily she looked at Robert, saying, “Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. I am not working long enough for Queen Consolidated and I am only nineteen years old and-“

“It’s only a representative job,” Robert interrupted her with a smile.

“And he needs you more as a babysitter for me than as an IT-expert,” Oliver added, squeezing her hand while chuckling quietly, but stopped when Robert shot him a serious glare. He hastily cleared his throat and said seriously, “Felicity, please come with me to Russia.”

Felicity knew she was screwed the moment she met Oliver’s puppy eyes. She just couldn’t say no when he looked at her like that. But she couldn’t go. There was so much she had to do here. She had just started with her work as the Green Arrow. She couldn’t just go on a vacation for some time. But those damn eyes!

“When is the flight?” she asked with a sigh.

“6 p.m. on Wednesday,” Robert answered, smiling. “You will take our private jet.”

“Okay,” Felicity nodded, glancing at her watch. It had become so much later than she had expected. “I should probably go now.”

“I’ll accompany you to the door,” Oliver said, getting up just in time with Felicity and Robert.

“Please don’t let another month pass before you come here the next time,” Robert asked, hugging Felicity like he had hugged Tommy before.

“I’ll try,” Felicity answered before turning around and leaving with Oliver.

It was strange, Felicity thought, that Robert put so much trust in her. He barely knew her and she only worked in the IT department right now. It wasn’t like she had too many responsibilities or at least none that could make anyone think that she was qualified to accompany Oliver to something like that.

“Wait, my car is right there,” Felicity said when Oliver led her to the left and away from her car.

“Yeah, but you are not going to drive home in your car because you’ve had a glass of wine. Instead you’ll let Ricky drive you home.”

“But-“

“I’ll come by before work tomorrow, so you’ll get your car back. Oh, and before you object that people might see us coming to work together, I will take a taxi from your apartment, so we are good.”

“To be honest,” Felicity said, standing still and waiting for Oliver to turn around and face her, “we are good either way because when we go to Moscow together, everyone will know anyway.”

Oliver put his hands on her hips and pulled her closer. A deep frown built on his forehead, making him look a lot like the tortured soul he had been before her time travel. Hastily Felicity lifted her hand and stroked the furrow between his eyebrows away. Still, Oliver’s voice sounded concerned when he said, “I’m sorry I didn’t think about that sooner. Are you okay with that because if you don’t want to go, so nobody will find out, I-“

Felicity interrupted him with a kiss. Stepping closer to him, she slid her arms around his neck and raised herself on her tiptoes to deepen the kiss, invading his mouth with her tongue. Oliver’s hands moved from her hips to her back to pull her closer, crashing her chest into his. When their lips parted, he gently bumped her nose with his and smiled at her happily. His deep blue eyes made butterflies flutter in her stomach.

“I think I wanted to say something,” Felicity whispered, “but I can’t remember.”

“You might have wanted to say that you can’t come to Russia with me.”

“Right!” Felicity exclaimed and Oliver’s face fell slightly. “I mean… No, I don’t mean… What I mean is…”

Felicity breathed in deeply. She put her hands to Oliver’s biceps, gathering her thoughts before she began again. “I don’t mind if people know. Actually, I think you father’s assistant Emily knows, and I have already told my coworker Sally. And my mum.”

“You did?” Oliver asked with surprise.

“Yeah, you know, I was complaining about missing you those last two weeks,” she explained, feeling a blush rise into her face, and busied herself with the topmost button of Oliver’s dress shirt until he put his fingers to her chin and lifted her face until she was looking at him again.

“I missed you, too. A lot actually,” he said, kissing her softly.

“So how about you come home with me and we make up for the time we’ve missed?”

Oliver groaned lowly, kissing her once more before he responded, “I can’t. My dad and I will go to Metropolis tomorrow and won’t come back until Wednesday morning.”

“Oh,” Felicity said, biting her tongue and lowering her head again to hide her disappointment.

“But when we’re in Moscow, we have five days and nights almost just for us,” Oliver whispered into her ear. “I am all yours then.”

Immediately Felicity grinned and looked up again. “Okay, that sounds okay. More than okay, actually. It sounds great. So I’ll survive those few days without you. What are you doing in Metropolis, anyway?”

“We have a meeting with Talia Head from LexCorp.”

“I heard she is very pretty.”

Oliver snorted. “Like I will notice.”

When Ricky came and held the door of the car open for Felicity, she hurriedly pressed one last kiss to Oliver’s lips, whispered her goodbye into his ear and climbed into the car.

On the ride home she leaned her head back against the head rest and closed her eyes, taking some deep breaths. Meeting Laurel and Sara again had been so strange. Maybe if some more time passed, they could become friends. Felicity really hoped so because yes, the circumstances were stranger, but…

It was hard to explain. It wasn’t just the fact that Felicity barely had any friends yet, it was that she felt like Laurel and Sara were her friends. They had been before her time travel. She had actually spent a lot of time with Laurel after they had been forced to leave Oliver in Nanda Parbat and before they had been locked into a cell in Nanda Parbat, left to die there. And Sara had just been so kind and she had just died too soon.

Sighing Felicity looked out of the window. Not that long ago she had told Barry that she had first hand seen what a life like this could do to people and that it was a lonely path and she had advised him to not make it any lonelier than it had to be. So that was what she was trying to do. She was trying to make it not be as lonely as she knew it could be if you pushed people away constantly. It was one of the reasons for why she met Sally at least once a week after work and it was one of the reasons why she wanted to make new friends so badly.

Shortly after the car stopped, Ricky opened the door for her. She felt his gaze on her skin when she climbed up the stairs and searched through her bag for the keys. When she asked him why he did that, the driver replied that he had been assigned to wait until the door was safely fallen shut behind her. Rolling her eyes, Felicity opened the door, waved goodbye to Ricky and closed the door.

It was really cute of Oliver to feel the need to protect her, Felicity thought while climbing up the stairs to her apartment. When they had dinner dates, Oliver always accompanied her to the door, making sure she was coming home safely, and he never pushed to come up into her apartment with her.

Sighing, Felicity opened the door to her apartment, closed the door behind her and strolled into the kitchen. On her way there she opened the window in her bedroom to get some fresh air.

Oliver and she still hadn’t had sex since her time travel. At the beginning she had just wanted to take things slow. She had wanted to get to know this version of Oliver and she had wanted for this Oliver to really get to know himself. But she had gotten to know this version of Oliver and Oliver had gotten to know himself. So she felt like it was about time to move their relationship to that level. She loved Oliver and he loved her. He had said it, and she believed him. Oliver was-

“You know it is kind of dangerous to let your window open like that, right?”

Wincing, Felicity let the glass she had just filled with some water fall to the floor and turned around with one hand pressed to her chest to calm her racing heart. She heard the glass hit the floor, shattering into a thousand pieces.

“God, Nyssa,” Felicity groaned as she could finally breathe again. “Do you want to scare me to death?”

“You should expect to have unbidden guests if you leave your window open like that,” Nyssa explained.

Felicity shortly glanced towards her bedroom and saw an arrow that was attached to a rope sticking out of a wall. Nyssa must have actually come in through the window, and she had obviously shot an arrow into her wall. Like she couldn’t have just knocked!

“I’ve heard you are traveling to Russia.”

Questioningly, Felicity perked her eyebrows. “You’ve heard?”

Nyssa looked at her with a smug smile on her lips before she replied, “Let’s just say that I am following you a lot more than you might think. You’ve met some friends today?”

Felicity nodded, narrowing her eyes at Nyssa’s tone. The assassin was clearly trying to sound unaffected, but something told Felicity that there was more behind that question. She couldn’t say for sure, but considering the last run of time, Felicity suggested it had something to do with Sara.

“Yeah, you know, they are Oliver’s friends. I barely know them, but I hope I get to know them better,” Felicity answered, trying to find something to say about Sara to cause a reaction of Nyssa to prove Felicity’s hypothesis right, but nothing came to her mind. She couldn’t just talk about Sara without making it sound weird.

“You might see me in Russia,” Nyssa said. “I have some business to do there.”

“Other business than watching out for me?” Felicity asked, cocking her head.

Nyssa smirked. “Maybe.”

Turning around, Nyssa went back into the bedroom. She took her arrow out of the wall and disappeared through the very same window she had used to come in, leaving Felicity alone in her apartment again.

Nyssa wasn’t the only one who had some business to do in Moscow, Felicity thought when she closed the window. She should probably spend her little free time between her QC job and her training with doing some researches about the Bratva, about Dr. Ivo and about the Amazo.


	2. Chapter 2

Sometimes Felicity believed destiny or whatever higher powers had made her travel back in time had a really bad sense of humor. What other possible reasons were there to explain why they were staying in the very same hotel they had stayed in when they had been in Russia to save Lyla? Okay, they had managed to save Lyla, so maybe it was a good sign for her mission, but what did it mean for Oliver and her? After all, it was also the same hotel where he had slept with that evil Isabel Rochev. And right after he had given her his legendary because-of-the-life-that-I-lead-speech.

So the hotel was nice and modern, one of the best luxury hotels in Moscow actually, but Felicity just wasn’t too excited about their stay here. There were just too many bad memories connected with this place. At least they weren’t staying in the same room they had back then or in Isabel’s room because that would have been even worse.  Instead, Robert had booked them a fairly large suite in one of the upper floors, from where you had a wonderful view on Moscow.

“Just leave the suitcases there,” Oliver asked the bellhop, giving him a generous tip. “I’ll take care of them later. Thank you.”

Felicity took off her summer coat, carelessly throwing it on the couch in the living area while she was looking around. There was a small kitchen area with an expensive looking coffeemaker and a living area with a beautiful fireplace and a TV. Through an open door to her right she could see a desk in front of a wall of bookshelves. Two other doors were closed.

“This must have cost a lot,” Felicity said out loud. “I can’t remember ever having stayed at a place like this.”

“Dad likes comfort,” Oliver answered with a shrug of his shoulders and slowly put his hands in his pockets before he nodded towards the closed doors. “Do you want to take the master bedroom? I’ll take the other one then.”

Turning around with a broad grin on her face, Felicity cocked her head and asked, “You do remember that we have been sleeping in a bed together already, right?”

“Yeah,” Oliver replied, nervously massaging the back of his neck, “but that was just once… and… I thought… you know… I didn’t want to… I mean…”

“You’re cute,” Felicity interrupted his stammer with a happy smile, “which is why I will allow you to join me in whatever bed I choose. So… which one is the master bedroom?”

“Right there,” Oliver replied, pointing to one of the closed rooms, and with a last smile in his direction Felicity strolled towards the double door and opened it.

“Wow,” she almost chocked out and entered the room, taking it in with wide eyes.

The view out of the windows which were placed on two of the high walls was even better than from the living area. On the dark hardwood floor was a carpet that looked so fluffy Felicity was sure you could sleep on it comfortably. The bed was definitely king sized although the bunch of pillows of every size possible made it appear slightly smaller. It was beyond perfect, though.

Sighing, Felicity let herself fall backwards into bed with closed eyes. “This bed is probably the most comfortable I have ever lain in. I could fall asleep again.”

 “You’ve slept almost the whole flight,” Oliver chuckled. He leaned in the doorframe, rested his head against the wood of the frame and watched Felicity with a loving gaze. “Do you want a rest to get some more sleep?”

“No,” Felicity said with a yawn and opened her eyes, only to see herself staring back at her. “Oliver?”

“Felicity?” he asked back.

“There is a mirror on the ceiling.”

“What?” he asked, approaching her to lie down next to her and see what she saw. The moment he realized that what she had been telling him was true, he grinned. “Well, that is going to be fun.”

Oliver had – to Felicity’s amusement – the decency to look a little bit ashamed when she shot him a glance. They both knew that their first time was supposed to happen during their stay here. They hadn’t talked about it, but Felicity was pretty sure that Oliver agreed that now seemed to be the perfect timing. They had waited to so long and they both wanted that. They were both ready for it. So it was an unspoken agreement that if there was an opportunity for that, they were going to let it happen.

Still, Oliver changed the subject back to their evening plans hastily, asking, “So what are we going to do the rest of the day?”

“How about seeing a little more of Moscow and grab something to eat?”

Felicity hadn’t seen much of the city when she had been here the last time, so this might be her chance, and she was actually kind of hungry. The flight had been exhausting, even if she had been asleep most of the time. She had only fully woken up when she had realized what hotel they were going to stay in, and that hadn’t really made her feel any better.

“Whatever you want,” Oliver replied, smiling. “Do you want to change or something?”

“No.”

“Mind if I take a quick shower before we leave?”

“Nope.”

“Then I’ll be back in a few minutes. Don’t fall asleep in the meantime,” he asked, rolling over to kiss her gently. He then got up and out of the bed, leaving for the en suite bedroom. “Oh, Felicity, we are going to have even more fun.”

She shot him a questioning gaze, and Oliver gestured towards the milk glass wall Felicity had only taken notice of shortly. He answered, “The shower is right behind this.”

“Oh man!” Felicity said, shaking her head. Hastily she got up and left the room, blowing Oliver a quick kiss. “I wanted to check the WiFi anyway, so I’ll just leave the room to you.”

Felicity closed the door behind her. Yes, they were certainly going to have a lot of fun during their stay although she had to say that those slightly kinky extras in their bedroom were something she needed to get used to first. Well, at least that was going to distract her from the old memories of this hotel.

Shaking those thoughts, Felicity opened her suitcase and switched on her tablet, checking on the alarm she had set for when the Amazo was going to arrive at Lian Yu. She had hacked one of A.R.G.U.S.’ satellites, so she could always see where the Amazo was, and right now it was setting course for Lian Yu. It made sense, Felicity thought, since a lot of what had happened on Lian Yu had been revealed when the media had reported about Amanda Waller’s criminal activities and the three people that fortunately had been saved from that hell. So it was only logical that Dr. Ivo and his crew searched for the Mirakuru where they knew an army had been. Although it hadn’t been the Japanese army, it was at least some kind of hint, Felicity guessed.

It wasn’t going to take too long before they would arrive there. So Felicity needed to put her plan into action soon. She closed the screen window and opened another, a blinking red point showing her the location of the club Felicity knew Oliver and Diggle had gone to when they had left her right after their arrival in Moscow. They hadn’t taken her with them, but Felicity hadn’t felt too comfortable just letting them go out there to the Bratva, one of the most feared criminal organizations in the world. So she had tracked their phones to keep an eye on them. She wouldn’t really have been able to do anything if they had been in danger, but it had made her feel better.

So she knew where she could find members of the Bratva. She just needed to figure out how to get them to help her. Couldn’t be that hard, right?

 

 

“Okay, on a scale from one to ten how beautiful was she?” Felicity interrupted Oliver midsentence. She folded her arms on the tabletop and cocked her head, watching him with narrowed eyes.

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Oliver replied, trying to look innocently, but he couldn’t fool her. The way he looked down on his food again and again like he was trying really hard to make out what he was going to eat next gave him away. “The food is good, isn’t it?”

Felicity snorted, putting a small piece of her steak into her mouth before she said, “Come on, Oliver, I’ve told you before your trip to Metropolis that the CEO of LexCorp is said to be beautiful. You could at least admit it.”

After he had repeated almost every word that had been spoken during the three or four meetings they had had with Talia Head, Felicity had finally noticed that he was avoiding talking too much about the super successful and extremely beautiful woman that was leading the company. Instead, he had kept the topic strictly on everything business related. If it hadn’t been so amusing, Felicity would have died of boredom.

“We were really busy there, Felicity,” he responded after a short while, looking at her seriously. “I didn’t have time to even waste a single thought on the CEO’s appearance. Besides, I already know the most beautiful girl in the world and she was miles away in Starling City.”

A smiled spread across his face when he said the last words, and Felicity rolled her eyes, whispering loudly, “Liar!”

Oliver just chuckled and winked at her before he asked, “What did you do while I was in Metropolis?”

“I started doing sports,” she told him honestly, “morning runs and strength trainings. It balances all the time I’m sitting in front of my computers. You should join me. Nothing clears the head as much as running.”

Oliver looked up from his plate to take a close look at Felicity. Slowly he put his cutlery down and put a hand on one of Felicity’s. He frowned, saying seriously, “Felicity, I hope you know that you can talk to me about everything. I love you, and I am here for you. So if there is anything you need to clear your head from, you can clear it by telling me. I might not have much life experience, and we both now I am not nearly as smart as you, but maybe I can still help.”

Felicity’s heart pounded like crazy and her breaths were coming short. She could almost hear her blood rushing though her veins as she thought about the meaning of his words. If there had ever been a right moment to tell your boyfriend that you were a secret vigilante, it would have been a moment like this when your boyfriend actually offered to support you and help you with whatever was bothering you.

Maybe it wasn’t the best time since they were in Russia and supposed to stay in the same hotel suite which wouldn’t give her the possibility to give him the room he might need when she told him now. But he had offered, and she had wanted to tell him for so long, and he was looking at her like he really meant what he said, and he would really help her through anything.

“I am-“

Before Felicity could say anything more, Oliver’s phone started buzzing. She lowered her gaze to it, but Oliver only said, “Just ignore it. It’s probably not important.”

Her heart still pounded wildly when she lifted her gaze to his eyes again. He looked at her so intensely that it made her hold her breath for a short second before she answered, “I am fine. I just haven’t slept that well those last weeks and… I am fine. Really. You should probably take that call.”

Oliver frowned slightly. He tried to hide it, but Felicity could see the disappointment in his eyes. Of course he knew that there was something going on with her and that her ‘I am fine’ was her avoiding the topic. She smiled at him comfortingly and with a sigh Oliver picked up his phone.

“Oliver Queen?”

While he was on the phone, Felicity watched his face closely to distract herself from the growing knot in the pit of her stomach. She knew she should have probably told Oliver, but she just hadn’t been able to do it. This was bad. She was a bad person, especially since she knew that with every more day she kept lying to him, it was going to become harder to tell him the truth.

But it just felt so wrong to get him into that. Oliver was so much more at peace with himself, so much happier and less burdened in this run of time. If she told him about what was going on with her, she would take that from him. At least it felt that way, and she didn’t want that. She didn’t want him to lose even one shade of his happiness, especially not because of her. It felt too good seeing him like that.

“I’m coming,” Oliver suddenly said grimly, hanging up.

“Something wrong?” Felicity asked immediately.

“Something at the hotel,” he replied with a shrug of his shoulders. “I have to go back, so how about we finish our dinner with dessert at the hotel? We could watch a movie or something.”

Felicity hesitated, biting down on her bottom lip. Nervously she tried to think about what to say or do. Of course she wanted to spend time with Oliver, and she certainly didn’t want to disappoint him or something, but she had a mission to accomplish, and she needed time to do so. She couldn’t save Anatoli by lying in bed.

“Would you mind if I took a walk through the city?” Felicity asked, giving him her best smile. “You know, I don’t think I will ever get another chance to go to Moscow again, and I would like to see as much of it as possible. So how about you return to the hotel to solve whatever problem there is and choose a movie for us. In the meantime I will take a walk and join you in… let’s say two hours?”

Oliver perked an eyebrow. “Two hours is a lot of time.”

“Pretty please?” Felicity asked.

Sighing, Oliver put his napkin to the tabletop and got up from his chair. He walked around the table and framed Felicity’s face gently with his hands, asking, “Are you sure you are going to be okay alone in a city never mind a state you have never been to before?”

“I am cute. If I lose my way, I will just smile and hope for some prince on a white horse to show up and take me to his castle.”

“I don’t think there will be wifi in fairyland,” Oliver objected.

“You think?” she asked, trying to sound shocked, and Oliver nodded. “In that case I might consider calling my superhot boyfriend if I get lost.”

“Good girl,” Oliver whispered with a grin on his lips before bending his head down and brushing his lips over hers. “I’ll go pay the bill. See you later. If anything happens, call me.”

Felicity watched him leave, being torn between the feeling of butterflies and the twisting pain of knots in her stomach. Lying to him wasn’t getting easier. It was only getting worse.  
All she could do was hoping that someday the right moment without any interruptions would come for her to tell him.  
Someday it might.

She slowly counted to hundred after Oliver had left and then left the restaurant, too. Stepping outside onto the sidewalk, Felicity took a quick look around, making sure that Oliver wasn’t anywhere close. She then opened the map on her tablet, that she had managed to snuck into her purse, and opened the file with the map. A red line led her the way to the club where she knew she would find some members of the Bratva while a black blinking point was showing her own position.

So Felicity turned to her right and took the first step, watching how the point moved along the line on her screen. She loved technology. Her sense of direction was really bad. You could probably kick her out of the car two streets from her home and most of the time she wouldn’t find her way back home on her own. Thanks to her tablet that was never going to be a problem again and-

“For a second I thought he was going to talk you into coming with him, and I would have to abduct you out of your hotel room.”

Gasping for breath, Felicity turned around, pressing her tablet to her chest to not let it fall to the asphalt and break it. She looked into the dark alley between two houses, trying to see something, but her eyes refused to adjust to the darkness until a by now well known figure took two steps forward. The light from the next street lamp brushed the black and red gear.

“Nyssa!” Felicity sighed, pressing a hand to her chest to calm her wildly beating heart. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“I thought I’d better help you get rid of your boyfriend, and accompany you to the Bratva place you have been keeping an eye on lately.”

“How-?” Felicity started, but shook her head when she remembered that Nyssa wasn’t the one to talk much, and since she was member of the League of assassins, she kind of always knew what was going on. “Never mind. But wait! Did you call Oliver?”

“No, I didn’t call him. I just made sure that some of the security equipments didn’t work the way they were supposed to which means that the hotel thinks some of your stuff might have been robbed and called him in. Anyway, do you want to stand here and talk or do you want to get things done?”

Felicity bit down on her bottom lip. She didn’t want Oliver to get fooled. It was bad enough that she had to lie to him from time to time. She didn’t want Nyssa to do things that were going to make her feel even worse. Besides, if she finally got the chance to tell him, she didn’t want him to feel like an idiot for having been fooled all the time.

There was no time for that now, though. If Oliver realized that nothing was stolen, he was soon going to call her to ask if she wanted him to join her or at least come to the hotel sooner.

So Felicity just explained, “Anatoli Knyazev, the actual leader of the Bratva, was abducted by Dr. Antony Ivo. He is held captive on the Amazo, a ship near the North Chinese Sea, now. I want to get the Bratva to help me rescue him.”

Nyssa narrowed her eyes at her. “Why?”

“I could ask you the same,” Felicity replied. “Why do you help me?”

The young assassin didn’t answer. She just let her catlike eyes stay on the blonde IT girl’s face, watching her very closely without saying a word. Nyssa then answered very seriously, “I told you my father wants me to watch out for you. That is what I am doing. I am watching out for you and I guess I can spare myself some of the work if I just accompany you instead of coming to the rescue whenever you get yourself into trouble.”

Nyssa didn’t sound really convincing, but Felicity let it go. Besides, Nyssa didn’t seem to be too interested in continuing this conversation anyway and Felicity didn’t either. She had already turned around, gesturing Felicity to follow her. And Felicity did. Nyssa was still her best chance at getting some fieldwork done without getting into too much danger.

 

 

Felicity might have to take that last statement back, she realized.

Nyssa might not be exactly a danger to her, but she was definitely dangerous. Felicity had always known that, but she hadn’t fully understood how dangerous she really was until the assassin had rushed into the Bratva club without any further word, starting to shoot arrows at the people who weren’t in her reach, interrupting herself only to take out the people closer to her with some of the fastest moves of hand-to-hand combat Felicity had ever seen.  
She could only hope that Nyssa hadn’t killed them.

Felicity had wanted to talk to Nyssa about what to do before entering the club or whatever to call this. She had hoped they could just go in and Nyssa’s presence would be enough to scare them. Of course she had known in the back of her head that chances had been pretty bad for that, but she had hoped. Nyssa had acted before Felicity could have had formed any kind of plan, though.

Everything happened so terribly fast that Felicity could barely notice all the things that seemed to happen at the same time. She heard gunshots being fired and tried to duck down, but before she could move, Nyssa was already bending her down with one hand in the back of her neck. All Felicity could do was stare at the filthy floor.

And then all of a sudden Nyssa let go of her and Felicity threatened to stumble to the floor, but she managed to hold herself on her feet. She straightened back up and tried to orientate herself, but was distracted when a strong arm was put around her throat from behind, pressing her against a broad chest. She felt the cool metal of a gun press against her temple.

She shivered when the guy bent his head down and whispered something Russian into her ear. Felicity could only assume from his tone that it was supposed to be some kind of pervert thing, especially since he pressed the bulge in his pants to her butt, almost making her scream. How come it had always sound so much hotter when Oliver had spoken in Russian?

Fortunately, Diggle’s soft voice sounded in her head, calming her down, “If someone holds you and you feel like you are caged in, don’t struggle. As hard as it is, try to stay calm. And then act.”

It were those last words, that made her breathe in deeply before putting one hand on the gun, pushing it away from her face while simultaneously poking her elbow in his ribs, so the guy loosened his grip on her and she could turn around, hitting him on the head with the gun, just like she had with Cooper.

She was slightly out of breath, the adrenalin running through her veins, making her heart pound wildly against her ribs. She watched as the man sank onto the floor, losing his consciousness.

Felicity was lucky that that hadn’t gone wrong. She really needed to start actual training. As soon as she was back in Starling she would have to check who to turn to. Maybe Laurel’s former teacher could teach her. She just needed to remember his name.

“Good work,” Nyssa said, suddenly stepping next to her and making Felicity flinch. “I still suggest that you keep learning.”

Intending to say something, Felicity opened her mouth, but Nyssa already turned away. She held the arrow ready to shoot it while walking towards the only closed door that led out of the club room. Felicity watched impressed as Nyssa didn’t even have to lower her gaze to look at where she was stepping. She just managed to not trip up on any of the bodies on the floor. Felicity could only hope that they weren’t dead.

“They are not,” Nyssa hissed, “and now be quiet.”

Felicity wanted to say something more, but she shut her mouth, pressing her lips together tightly to stop herself from speaking. She followed Nyssa’s path to the door, coming to a stop right behind Nyssa like she suggested with a gesture. As soon as Felicity stood still, Nyssa kicked in the door, shooting an arrow at the same time. Felicity waited for Nyssa’s sign before she stepped forward to follow her into the room.

“A nice show you have created there,” a man with scrubby beard said.

Carefully glancing over Nyssa’s shoulder, Felicity eyed up the man who sat behind his desk with his hands folded on the tabletop. He was in his mid-forties, she estimated. He had a slight potbelly that kind of contrasted with his broad shoulders and otherwise muscular body. His piercing grey eyes were directed at Nyssa, who had an arrow pointed at him while another was stuck in the wall right beside his head. He didn’t seem thrown by that at all, though.

“My friend has to make a demand,” Nyssa stated coldly, turning her eyes at Felicity to nod shortly.

As Nyssa’s eyes snapped back towards her target, the man leaned back in his leather chair. His eyes were directed at Felicity now, and she had trouble to keep from shuddering. There was something really dangerous in his eyes.

“The Bratva isn’t famous for doing outsiders favors,” the man explained. “Why do you think we will make an exception for you?”

“She is not asking a favor, she is making a demand,” Nyssa repeated, shooting Felicity a short glance as a sign for her to speak.

“I know where your leader is. Anatoi Knyazev is held captive on a boat. I can help you to get him back, but I need the resources of the Bratva to do so.”

The Bratva guy – was he a Captain? Probably – didn’t answer. He just stared at Felicity blankly, tapping his fingertips on the tabletop of the desk. When he leaned forward slightly, folding his hands once more, Felicity immediately suggested that whatever he was going to say wasn’t something she would be pleased to hear.

“Anatoli Knyazev can take care of himself.”

He leaned back again, obviously not intending to say anything else. Felicity perked her eyebrows.

“That’s it?” she asked. “’He can take care of himself?’ Anatoli is in serious danger, and I am sure that if he manages to return which he will only be able to with our help, he won’t be too pleased with the fact that you have wasted precious time to act like a…”

Felicity’s words trailed off when an arrogant smile formed on that guy’s face. He watched her like she had missed something really funny, and it took her some moments before she realized it. She had said it herself. If Anatoli managed to return which he would only be able with their help… Only be able with their help. That was the point, wasn’t it?

When the Bratva didn’t help, Anatoli wasn’t going to return. If Anatoli didn’t return, that guy here wouldn’t have to vacate the office he had obviously taken over after Anatoli had disappeared.

“You’re not going to help,” Felicity whispered, realizing her mistake.

“Clever girl,” the guy said with a nasty grin. “I am not going to help you find him, but I will certainly help the two of you to protect yourselves from the pain of revenge my men will most likely bring on you for-“

Felicity gasped for air, her eyes widening. The guy had moved his hand slowly to the underside of the tabletop, but before he had been able to get to the gun that was probably there, three arrows were shot right through his chest. His body pushed into the backrest of his chair. His eyes widened in shock, the expression slowly fading before his head fell forward with his chin resting on his chest while the blood flowed out of the wounds.

“Nyssa!” Felicity whispered when she felt like she could finally breathe again, turning her head to look at the assassin, who watched the dead body without any expression in her face. Anger rose in Felicity at the blank expression, and she almost flinched when she heard herself yell, “What the hell were you thinking?! You could have just shot an arrow through his hand to stop him from grabbing his gun! You didn’t have to kill him! You-! Where the hell are you going?!”

“I told you I had some business to do here,” Nyssa replied coldly, stepping towards the window. Her eyes were still cold when she turned her head to look at Felicity. “You can contact me if you finally realize that the crusade you began is destined to form a path of blood behind you, Felicity.”

And then she just jumped out of the window, leaving Felicity alone with the dead Bratva guy.

Nyssa might have been right that killing this guy had been their only chance, Felicity admitted mentally, but she would never agree to the assassin’s opinion about the crusade as a whole. There were other ways than to kill. There had to be.


	3. Chapter 3

Felicity woke up with a low gasp, her whole body trembling slightly. Her eyes moved wildly around, trying to make out something familiar in this foreign room. It took her some seconds before she remembered where she was, and her heartbeat slowed down a little.

“Hey, you okay?” Oliver asked, gently placing his hand to her hip and rubbing it in soothing patterns. “You’ve been kind of restless the last few minutes, but I didn’t want to wake you. Nightmare?”

Slowly Felicity turned around and snuggled up to Oliver. She rested her head on his shoulder and put one leg between his, bringing herself closer to him. Although it was summer Felicity was freezing. She moved even closer to him, trying to borrow some of his body heat, and immediately his arms wrapped around her, embracing her in the warmth of his body.

“Are you going to fall sick?” he asked worriedly, pressing his lips to her forehead like he wanted to check whether she was running a fever. “You have barely said a word yesterday after you have returned from your walk, haven’t slept well and you are trembling.”

“I’m fine,” Felicity said, her voice not more than a whisper. “I’m just tired. Jetlag I guess.”

It wasn’t the jetlag. She might have one, but it wasn’t what was bothering her. What really was getting under her skin was what had happened last night. After Nyssa had left, Felicity had stared at the Bratva Captain’s dead body for at least two full minutes, not knowing what to do. She had felt the need to call the police and tell them about the dead body. She hadn’t wanted to leave that dead guy like that – Bratva Captain or not.

But Felicity had left without calling the police. The whole club room had been full of Bratva members who Nyssa had taken out. If any of them had found her there without Nyssa as her unmerciful guardian angel, they would have probably killed her and everything she had been working for so hard would have been for nothing. So she had left, had gone to the hotel where Oliver had waited for her with dessert and a movie, and had stated that she was very tired and headed right to bed.

She had barely been able to look him in the eyes, never mind to take a look into the mirror. She had had nightmares about what had happened. Nyssa had been so coldhearted. She had killed him without blinking. And her words about Felicity’s crusade were still running a shiver down her spine, even thinking about it.

Never was Felicity ever going to accept that she was because of the life she had chosen destined to kill.

“Mind if I switch on the TV to watch the news?” Oliver asked, kissing the crown of her head while rubbing her back comfortingly.

“No, seeing news would be great,” Felicity agreed, turning slightly in his arms to be able to look at the screen.

Her heart was pounding wildly against her ribs. What had happened to that dead guy? Had the Bratva gotten rid of his body? Had they called the police? Was the Russian police now searching for Nyssa and her?

Oliver zapped through the channels until he finally found an English speaking news channel. He dropped the remote on the mattress and wrapped his arm around Felicity again, resting his chin on the top of her head.

Felicity resisted the urge to close her eyes and get lost in his embrace. She would probably fall back asleep immediately. But she knew that she needed to watch the news. She needed to know what to prepare for. Her heart beat like crazy against her ribs, making it hard to breathe, and she was sure that Oliver could feel it, too, since he tightened his hold on her.

“Maybe we should call a doctor,” Oliver whispered, the worry evident in his voice. “You’re heart rate seems pretty high.”

“I’m fine,” Felicity explained, kissing his chest through his shirt. She wasn’t sure if Oliver believed her, but at least he let go of the topic, playing with her hair while watching the news instead.

Felicity had to force herself to breathe in and out regularly while the anchorman announced some of the news. There were a lot political and economical changes in Russia that were reported, and Felicity already wondered whether they were watching the right kind of news for the information she needed, when a photo of the killed Bratva member appeared on the screen and her whole body tensed.

“Dimitri Sergeyevich Bukov, a Moscow-born businessman, had been found dead in an alley near Gorky Park. According to an anonymous source inside of the police he was killed with an arrow through his heart. There is no more precise information about his murder for now, but the police have recently set an appointment for a press conference this afternoon,” the anchorman explained. “Bukov is survived by his wife and two children.”

Felicity felt a wave of nausea flash through her. He had had children that were half-orphans now. Wasn’t it enough that Felicity had orphaned Tommy? Did more children have to lose her parents? She had grown up without her father, and it had been hard. She didn’t wish that to anyone. To say that that guy had been a criminal just wasn’t enough. Her father was a criminal and still she had missed him all her childhood because he had been the parent she had always felt closer to. When you were a child, the only thing that mattered to you was how that parent treated you.

“I guess that will cast a shadow on the anniversary,” Oliver sighed, pulling Felicity from her thoughts.

She frowned, asking, “Why? Did you know that guy?”

“No,” Oliver answered, his hand never stopping to rub her back gently, “but his brother is the manager of our subsidiary here in Moscow.”

“What?” Felicity asked, her head snapping up quickly and crushing against Oliver’s jaw, making both of them moan in pain. “Sorry.”

“Yeah, he’s the brother. Nicolai Bukov leads our subsidiary. Why are you so shocked about that?”

“I’m just… surprised,” Felicity managed to say. “I mean… such things normally don’t happen to people you know, right? It’s just happening to strangers you don’t know, never to people you actually do know. Anyway, it’s… I don’t know… Strange… I guess.”

“You know Tommy, and both his parents have been killed,” Oliver explained softly, still massaging his jaw.

Felicity waved it off. “Still crazy. Anyway, what is our plan for today? Any chance for some you-and-me-time?”

After everything that had happened yesterday she felt like a few hours for just the two of them was exactly what she needed. Spending time with Oliver was easing her mind, and her mind needed to be eased right now. If she had been home, she would have locked herself in her apartment and cried for an hour to ease her soul from the memories, but here in Moscow all she could do was spending time with Oliver to make herself feel better. His different, happy self really helped with that.

“Well, we will meet Bukov for an inspection of the subsidiary. He will show us what they are working on and tell us a little more about the history,” Oliver responded. “This will probably take until the afternoon, but I have managed to keep the whole evening and all day tomorrow clear, so we can have a lot of you-and-me-time.”

He kissed the tip of her nose, and Felicity giggled lowly. She sighed before she said, “I should probably take a shower.”

“If you don’t feel well, you should stay in bed. I can go to the subsidiary on my own,” he offered, but Felicity shook her head.

“I’ve promised your father to watch out for you,” she grinned, climbing out of bed and walking towards the en suite bathroom until she remembered the milk glass, that separated the shower from the bedroom, and turned around. “Would you mind to… you know… leave the bedroom?”

She blushed at her ask, making Oliver chuckle. It was kind of ridiculous, asking him to leave. He had already seen her naked, even if it had been in another run of time. The idea of just hopping under the shower where he could see her silhouette still felt awkward, though, so asking him to leave seemed like a good idea.

Oliver didn’t seem to mind. He just climbed out of bed, saying, “I will order us some breakfast in the meantime.”

He strolled into her direction, coming to a stand right in front of her. Without any disgust for her morning breath, he leaned down, kissing her passionately. Felicity clung to his shoulders, straightening up onto her tiptoes to respond to the kiss without less passion. When their lips parted, they were both out of breath. Felicity opened her eyes to look at him, and her breath hitched at his intense gaze. There was a promise of more in his eyes, and as if he could read her mind, he winked at her before leaving the room all to herself.

Yes, staying close to Oliver seemed like the perfect solution to ease her mind.

 

 

Nikolai Sergeyevich Bukov was the spitting image of his recently deceased brother. He had the same broad shoulder and the same pot belly. His hair was slightly shorter, his grey eyes as piercing as the eyes of the man Felicity had watched die yesterday. The thought made her stomach turn, and let her thoughts revolve around nothing but that. She didn’t hear any of the words the manager said during the inspection, too distracted by the fact that she had seen the life fade from his brother’s eyes.

Oliver had condoled Mr. Bukov on his loss, but he had waved it off, and told them that he hadn’t had the best relationship to his brother. So they had dropped the topic and started the inspection. Still, Felicity felt like a hypocrite for standing right next to that guy and listening to his words about the subsidiary after what she had done yesterday.

At lunchtime they interrupted the inspection to go to one of the best restaurants in Moscow. Felicity felt nauseated just thinking about eating something, but she smiled all the way to the restaurant, joining in the polite chatter about the city and its architecture. She could tell from the light, thankful squeeze Oliver’s fingers gave her hand that he hadn’t prepared himself for a discussion about house fronts.

When they climbed out of the car, Mr. Bukov explained with a polite smile, “I hope both of you are okay with the fact that I invited my wife to join us during lunch.”

“Of course,” Oliver said with a nod of his head.

As soon as they entered the restaurant, they were led to a table where a beautiful blonde woman in an expensive looking dress was waiting. She got up and smiled a little nervously when they approached.

“Mr. Queen, what a pleasure to welcome you to Russia,” she said, shaking Oliver’s hand, before she turned around and smiled at Felicity. “You and your beautiful wife of course.”

“Oh, he and I are not…” Felicity began, feeling a babble beginning to form on the tip of her tongue. “We are not… We are just… together. Not just together here, but together-together, but not… you know, married.”

She took in a deep breath and pressed her lips together tightly to stop herself from saying anything more. She really had to work on that babble thing.

“Oh, I am really sorry,” Mrs. Bukova hurried to say, nervously looking around, “I really thought the two of you were married. I didn’t want to embarrass you by any means.”

“It’s okay,” Felicity said hastily, frowning slightly at how nervous the woman in front her seemed to be getting. “We just haven’t been together for so long.”

“Let’s sit down,” Mr. Bukov said, glancing harshly at his wife.

Felicity didn’t feel comfortable. She had felt bad for Mr. Bukov’s loss, but the way he treated his wife just made her feel less miserable for him and a lot more for her. During the whole lunch he kept throwing angry gazes in her direction, and Felicity could tell from the tremble of Mrs. Bukova’s hands that she didn’t feel comfortable either. The woman held her gaze lowered to her plate, and only spoke up when she was asked a question directly.

Maybe it was the fact that Felicity knew what people his brother had worked with, but she felt like there was something wrong with that guy. As soon as she was back at the hotel, she would try to figure out what there was to know about that guy.

When the waiter cleared the plates, Mr. Bukov suggested, “How would you like a short sightseeing tour around the city before we get back to work? There are lots of nice places to see here, and it would be a shame for you to go back to the States without having seen at least some of them. My wife has read a lot about the city, and I guess she can tell you some interesting facts you wouldn’t be able to find on the internet.”

“Actually,” Mrs. Bukova said shyly, “I would like to go back home. I am really tired.”

Felicity could see from the corner of her eyes that Mr. Bukov was about to explode. His hands were formed to tight fists, and he glared at his wife as if she had embarrassed him like nobody else ever had before.

“Yeah, me, too,” Felicity said hastily. “I’ve been feeling like I will get sick all morning and think a nap could help.”

Oliver put a hand on hers, asking worriedly, “Do you need a doctor?”

“No,” she answered, shaking her head with a smile. “I just need to rest a little rest, I guess, but that shouldn’t keep you from seeing more of Moscow. Mr. Bukov is right. It is a really nice city, so you should do that tour.”

“You’re sure?” Oliver asked and Felicity nodded.

“My driver will make sure that Ms. Smoak will get back to your hotel safely,” Mr. Bukov stated. “My wife will accompany you to the car, and then let herself be taken home by her own driver.”

They all got up and said their goodbyes. While Oliver gave Felicity a comforting hug, whispering into her ear to call him if she needed anything, Felicity watched Mr. Bukov hugging his wife tensely, whispering something Felicity couldn’t understand into her hear. Given how Mrs. Bukova’s eyes widened at her husband’s words, Felicity was sure that it wasn’t anything good.

Mrs. Bukova smiled tightly and gestured towards the door. “I will take you to my husband’s car, Ms. Smoak.”

Felicity nodded, let go of Oliver’s hand, she had been holding, and followed Mrs. Bukova to the door. Although her husband wasn’t near anymore, she still seemed tense. Felicity couldn’t imagine what it had to feel like to be afraid of the person you were sharing a bed with. It was something she never wanted to be forced to experience.

“Ms. Smoak,” Mrs. Bukova whispered so quietly that Felicity wasn’t sure if she really had said it, “you’re in danger.”

Felicity’s eyes snapped towards the woman next to her, but she kept her eyes straight on the door, not giving any sign that she really had said that. Was Felicity going crazy? Was she that paranoid after what had happened she saw danger where there wasn’t any?

“What-?” she tried to ask, but Mrs. Bukova hastily shook her head, opened the door and gestured towards the black limousine Felicity had been taken here in.

“It was a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Smoak,” Mrs. Buvoka said. “Be well.”

With that she turned around and walked away, leaving Felicity on the sidewalk, unsure of what to do. She could have at least told her the source of the danger Felicity was apparently in. What was she supposed to do without any idea of who she had to be scared of? Was it Mr. Bukov? Everyone who worked for Mr. Bukov? Someone completely different?

“Ms. Smoak?” the driver asked, calling her attention.

Felicity tried to think about what to say, but couldn’t find any excuse to not get into the car. So she smiled nervously and approached the driver who opened the door to the backseats for her and held out a hand as if he wanted to help her to get into the car. Felicity took a short look around, trying to find Nyssa on one of the rooftops, but didn’t seem to be there. Maybe she had stopped watching out for her after yesterday.

So Felicity took in a deep breath and climbed into the car, trying not to flinch when the driver closed the door behind her. She felt almost caged in the back of the car and had to force herself to take deep breaths.

During the whole drive she kept staring out of the window, holding her phone tightly in her hands. As soon as she would notice that they weren’t on the way to the hotel, she would do something. She hadn’t figured out what exactly that was going to be, but she would do something.

 

 

But they hadn’t left the path. The driver had stopped the car in front of the hotel, had opened her door and said goodbye with a polite smile. Nothing had happened. Felicity had seriously doubted her own sanity. Doing what she did could make people go crazy. She was sure of that. She just hadn’t assumed that she would go crazy. So Felicity had decided to skip the nap she had really planned on taking, and instead sat down on the bed with her tablet and the keyboard she had taken with her to Russia to find out more about Mr. Bukov, hoping to make the doubt in her sanity go away.

The first thirty minutes had passed without her finding anything. Mr. Bukov had seemed to be a perfectly reliable member of the Russian society. His marriage had been legally contracted three years ago, but there weren’t any children. The only problem he had ever had with the police had been about unpaid parking tickets.

Felicity had already wanted to give up when she had found something that had made her blink like a hundred times and pinch herself to make sure that what she saw right in front of her was real and not just another symptom of her newly developed paranoia.

Nikolai Bukov used the Queen Consolidated subsidiary here in Moscow to advance the Bratva’s arms trafficking. It was so subtle that Felicity wouldn’t even have noticed it if she hadn’t been too willing to find something. There was a not so small number of weapons that were produced in one of the local manufactories, but somehow disappeared on the paper. The protocols of the manufactories always listed the production of more weapons than that were sold later. Either whoever was responsible to control things like that wasn’t doing his job, or that person worked for the Bratva as well.

“Damn it,” Felicity muttered under her breath, getting up from her chair and starting to walk up and down in the room nervously, chewing on the nail of her thumb.

Why did it seem like everything she had planned for this trip to Russia was going wrong? The Bratva wasn’t going to help her saving Anatoli. Nyssa had killed that Bratva guy. The Bratva had occupied the QC subsidiary. And that she was working really hard on ruining her relationship with Oliver if she continued going down this path wasn’t making her too happy either. She had wanted to come here to help Anatoli and to deepen her relationship with Oliver. Now she was no step closer to saving the first and was standing up and lying to the latter.

Nyssa was right. Something about how she did things needed to change, and it needed to change soon. Otherwise she was going to spend the rest of her life doing nothing else but feeling torn between two lives, not getting done anything right in either of them.

A knock at the door called her attention, but Felicity just glanced at the closed door shortly before choosing to ignore it.

What Felicity really needed was help. She needed someone to support her, and as much as Nyssa had helped her, she didn’t seem to be the best pick for that. After all, Nyssa was still an assassin, and that made her dangerous. Killing had probably been Nyssa’s daily habit since she was a child. She had been raised to kill. Felicity wanted to believe that there was a way to keep Nyssa from killing and to make her become a reliable friend, but it seemed kind of impossible. Nyssa was-

Another knock at the door made Felicity roll her eyes. Sighing, she stopped walking up and down and went to open the door, only coming to a stand with the hand on the door knob, thinking about who it could be.

The driver hadn’t killed her obviously, but there had to be some reason Mrs. Bukova had said that she was in danger. Knowing what she knew about Mr. Bukov now, meant that maybe she really was in danger, and her sanity wasn’t lost yet.

“Stay calm, Felicity,” she murmured to herself and opened the door.

Felicity didn’t know what or rather who she had expected. She was in a foreign state where nobody knew her and the people who could possible want something from her probably wouldn’t knock. Still, there had been no way she could have actually known who was waiting for her to open the door.

“Hi,” the beautiful black-haired woman said, staring at Felicity like she was some kind of ghost, and Felicity was kind of sure that she stared back at the woman with the same expression in her face.

“Hi,” Felicity responded.

Silence settled while the two women kept staring at each other. Felicity had seen photos of her. She had seen pictures in the media, and she had heard a lot about her, but she had never met her because before her time travel Shado had died before Felicity had even known about her existence.

“What are you doing here?” Felicity asked breathlessly, realizing that she had been holding her breath before.

“Maybe we shouldn’t talk about that in the hallway. We will call attention if anyone realizes we have snuck in here.”

Felicity flinched for the like hundredth time ever since she was in Moscow, and her heartbeat fastened. She felt her mouth become dry when the man who had spoken stepped closer and into her view. The last time Felicity had seen Slade he had held a sword pressed to her throat, threatening Oliver to kill her. He seemed just as frightening as he had back then although the fact that he had two eyes kind of took that pirate-like touch his appearance had had before away.

When Felicity made no attempt to move, Slade just stepped past her and into the hotel suite. Shado smiled comfortingly before following, and Felicity closed the door behind them, turning around to look at them.

“How did you find me?”

“Shado was obsessed with the thought of finding you,” Slade explained, not looking at her and instead taking a closer look at the room, “so I asked some friends at ASIS to find out who was responsible for our rescue. I hoped Shado would give up when I told her your name, but that stubborn girl insisted on seeing you and thanking you in person. When she read that you and your Richie Rich guy of a boyfriend were traveling to Moscow she wanted to come, too. I didn’t want to let her go alone in case you are some sick psychotic-“

“Slade,” Shado said softly, reminding Felicity a lot of how she had used to calm down Oliver when he had been out of himself, “she saved our lives.”

Smiling, Shado turned around to Felicity, approaching her until she stood right in front of her, and put her hands to Felicity’s shoulders, saying, “You saved our lives. Not just Slade’s and mine, but also my father’s. I couldn’t move on without telling you how grateful I am.”

Before Felicity could say anything, Shado stepped even closer, hugging her like they were old friends that hadn’t seen each other in a while. It would have probably felt comforting, if Slade hadn’t looked at her like he was going to kill her any second.

Shado let go of Felicity soon, instead going back to keeping her hands put to her shoulders.

“Slade and I want to offer our help,” she explained and Slade grunted in reaction, but Shado ignore it. “We know that we haven’t been the only ones you have saved. We know that you help the police in your city, and if there will ever be anything that you can’t do alone, we want to help. We owe you.”

Felicity stared at Shado. Was she serious? Did she really offer to join Felicity in her crazy crusade after she had just been saved from a hellish island? Didn’t she just want to sit on her couch, eating ice cream and catching up on all the episodes of her favorite TV series she had missed during her absence?

It wasn’t that Felicity couldn’t need the help. After she had been turned down by the Bratva and had put off Nyssa, she needed someone else to help her, and at least Shado had offered. Felicity wasn’t sure Slade was really here to offer her something like that, she doubted it actually, but something about the expression in his eyes whenever he looked at Shado told her that he would most likely help at least her.

Her tablet made a sound, telling her that one of the alarms she had set was going off.

“Excuse me,” Felicity said hastily, pushing herself past Shado and hurrying into the bedroom where she had left the tablet on the bed.

While she checked on what had happened, she saw Slade stepping closer to Shado, whispering something to her. Felicity couldn’t understand what he said, but taken in consideration how he kept glancing at Felicity from time to time, she was sure, that he was trying to talk her out of what she was doing here. Shado didn’t seem to let herself be influenced by him, though. She put a hand to his chest and smiled softly, whispering something in return that made Slade smile slightly.

It seemed kind of intimate how they stood there. They seemed so close to each other although they were barely touching. There was a silent understanding in their treatment of each other that again reminded Felicity of Oliver and her. At least before her time travel they had shared a relationship like that. Now it was different because she was lying to him and disappointing him, and he sensed that. She wanted to get back to that, she thought, watching them quietly. She wanted to get back to when unspoken words were enough because you could understand your partner even though he didn’t say a word.

Sighing, she looked down at her tablet and perked her eyebrows when she realized that the Amazo had arrived at Lian Yu already. It probably wasn’t going to take long for them to find out where the Mirakuru was. After all, it was just a small island. It couldn’t be that hard.

Felicity watched Slade and Shado, who were still having their wordless conversation. They were her best and actually only choice. They knew the island. They knew how to fight. And they had friends that could help them. She didn’t like the fact that she was pulling someone into this who had a chance of a normal life, but she had no choice.

“If the offer is still on the table,” Felicity said, getting up from bed again and approaching them, “there might be something I could use your help with.”

Slade sighed. Shado nodded.

“Okay, right now I am working on-“

A clicking at the door made Felicity stop and turn her head. She sucked in a breath when she saw Oliver stepping into the suite, eying up Slade and Shado nosily.

“Hi,” Felicity hurried to say, walking towards him and pressing a short kiss to his lips, “you’re back soon. I didn’t expect to see you before dinner.”

Oliver’s eyes stayed on Slade and Shado for a moment longer before he finally looked at her, replying, “I was worried about you and thought I should come back early in case you needed anything, but it looks like you are feeling better already.”

Felicity bit her lip at the tenseness of his tone. This really had to look bad for him. She had left early, saying she felt sick, and now he returned, and she was on her feet, having visitors he didn’t know.

“I’ve taken a nap and felt better after,” Felicity lied, taking his hand between hers. “It was probably just the jetlag and the little sleep I got last night.”

Oliver nodded, but Felicity wasn’t sure if he believed it. He looked at Slade and Shado, asking, “You have invited friends?”

Felicity hesitated, hastily shaking her head when Shado looked at her in question, making her understand that Oliver had no idea what she was doing. But what was she supposed to say? She couldn’t tell him the truth right now. It was too complicated. But what possible lie was there that explained why two strangers had come to visit her?

“She didn’t invite us actually,” Slade finally explained with a quiet sigh in his voice. “Shado and Felicity know each other from Vegas, and when Shado heard about Felicity being in town, she suggested we should interrupt our vacation to say hello.”

Felicity and Shado exchanged a short gaze and smiled hastily at each other. Felicity then redirected her eyes at Oliver who smiled, but it seemed forced.

“How about we four will go to dinner together?” Slade suggested, putting an arm around Shado, who seemed surprised but hastily leaned into his touch. “I guess the girls would like to catch up on each other’s life.”

Oliver lowered his head to look at Felicity. “Do you feel healthy enough for that?”

Felicity nodded. “Yeah, like I said I was just tired.”

Oliver’s eyes kept locked with hers for a moment before he nodded, saying, “Let’s go.”

Just when she was about to press another kiss to his lips, he pulled his hand away from hers and made his way to the door. It was possible that he hadn’t noticed that she had been about to kiss him, but something told Felicity that she might have gone to wide with what she had done today.

She really needed to fix that. If Slade and Shado took care of Dr. Ivo and saved Anatoli she might finally get the change for that.


	4. Chapter 4

It was an almost absurd situation. She was sitting at a dinner table with a woman that she had always considered dead, a man who had threatened to slit her throat just to revenge the woman that had been considered dead and a man who she loved, but who didn’t know anything of the strange double life she was living. The fact that Oliver asked about all possible things regarding Shado’s and Felicity’s friendship and childhood didn’t help either especially since the two women had no choice, but to lie about it.

“So your mother’s have worked together in a casino?” Oliver asked interestedly. “And that is how the two of you got to know each other?”

Shado nodded. “Yes, they often worked in the same night shift and brought us with them because they couldn’t afford babysitters. The owner of the casino was a nice guy, so he let them take us with them. They became friends and so did we. We spent a lot of time together in the casino and there wasn’t much for us to do, so it had been kind of destined to happen. When Felicity started studying at MIT, we kind of lost the contact to one another. So I was more than happy to hear that she is here, so we could meet again. I’m sorry we interrupted your evening, though.”

“It’s okay,” Oliver said. “It’s nice to hear more about her childhood actually. Felicity doesn’t like to talk about it too much. And I have never met one of her friends because she just moved to Starling when we met each other, so it’s nice to finally meet someone who knew her from childhood on.”

“I suggest that we will change the subject anyway,” Felicity asked, looking at Oliver pleadingly. “Please.”

Oliver looked right back at her. There was something in his eyes, Felicity couldn’t really name. Was it disappointment? Anger? He didn’t seem to be too happy about her ask, just like he hadn’t seemed too happy about the idea of having dinner with more people than Felicity in the first place. But he pressed his lips together, smiled tensely and nodded.

“If that is what you want.”

“Thank you,” Felicity whispered, patting his hand.

An uncomfortable silence settled. What were they supposed to talk about? Felicity’s and Shado’s childhood was ostensibly the only thing that connected the four of them. There wasn’t much else they could have in common.

It was a terrible thought and Felicity was ashamed for thinking it, but she needed to get rid of Oliver for a few minutes. Slade sat on his chair with his arms crossed in front of his chest and he looked like he was going to get up and rush out any minute, just to end this farce. He was growing impatient and Felicity couldn’t even be mad at him for it. She wanted to get over with asking the two of them the favor she needed them to do for her. But she couldn’t ask them as long as Oliver was still sitting at the table with them. He needed to leave. He really did.

Felicity was already trying to make up ways to make him get up and leave for a few minutes when he put his napkin to the table and said, “Excuse me please. I’ll be right back.”

As soon as he was out of sight, Felicity looked at Shado and Slade. Both of them had leaned forward and rested their forearms on the tabletop now, watching Felicity nosily.

“What can we do to help?” Shado whispered.

“Anatoli Knyazev, the leader of the Bratva, was abducted and is now held captive by a man named Dr. Ivo. He tries to find a cure for his sick wife. He needs his hostages to test the cure. Anyway, he is now on a small island in the North China Sea.”

Slade frowned. “Why do you want to save a criminal? What do you have to do with that guy?”

“I don’t have anything to do with him,” Felicity replied. “I just know that he is in danger and I want to save him. The cure or drug or whatever to call it, Dr. Ivo is after, is dangerous. Once it will fall into the wrong hands, it can destroy a lot. There is nothing good about it.”

“Why do you think we could help you stop them?” Slade asked. He was still skeptical.

Felicity glanced back over her shoulder to make sure Oliver still wasn’t anywhere near before she answered, “Because you know the island a lot better than anyone else.”

“Lian Yu,” Shado whispered and Felicity nodded. “What exactly do you want us to do?”

“I need you to go back to Lian Yu, free Dr. Ivo’s hostages and destroy the serum,” she answered. “Even with your knowledge about the island and your skills, you won’t be able to fight him alone. Ivo works with some kind of small army or whatever to call it. You will need help, so you should consider asking your friends from ASIS to come with you.”

Nobody said a word. Felicity looked from Shado to Slade and back again, but neither of them showed any kind of reaction. It was hard to say what they thought. She didn’t know them long enough to know what the expression in their faces meant. Shado looked towards Slade who looked back at her. Although no word was spoken, Felicity could feel that there was a silent conversation going on between them. She lowered her gaze, a little embarrassed by the feeling of disturbing their closeness.

“You want us to go back to Lian Yu?” Shado asked after some time.

“I know I am asking a lot from you,” Felicity answered hastily.

“Indeed,” Slade growled. “Do you have any idea how long we have been held captive on that island? What we had to endure there? Going back there is crazy.”

Felicity took a deep breath. Even without losing Shado and without being injected with the Mirakuru, Slade was kind of difficult. And somehow he still managed to frighten Felicity a little. She could almost feel the cold metal of the sword being pressed against her throat again. It sent a cold shiver down her spine.

“I could understand if you refused to do it,” Felicity explained. “I can only assume how many painful memories are tied to the island for the two of you. So if you say no, it’s okay. I will find another way and you-“

“We will do it,” Shado interrupted.

“Not so quickly,” Slade said, eying up Felicity once more. “We won’t do anything before you tell us more about you and your mission.”

Felicity watched back over her shoulder once more. They didn’t have the time for her to tell them the story of her life. She was sure that ASIS had told them the basic information about her because otherwise they hadn’t been able to know that she was from Vegas or that her mother had worked in a casino. What they wanted and needed to know what why she did that. She could be crazy or something like that. She could even work for some governmental institution like A.R.G.U.S. and try to get them killed, so there were no witnesses of what had happened on the island. Well, there was still Yao Fei, but Felicity could take care of him, too, at least in this scenario.

She took another look back over her shoulder, making sure Oliver was still nowhere near before she took in a deep breath and looked at the two people across the table. She had no choice. They wanted a story that made sense. Telling them that she had traveled back in time and knew how their lives could have developed if Oliver had been stranded with them, would be doing no good. Felicity didn’t like to admit it, but she had lied so many times by now that one lie more or less didn’t seem to make a difference.

“The father of Oliver’s best friend was a criminal. I found out a while ago that he planned on murdering Oliver’s father by manipulating the boat he wanted to use to a trip to China. Oliver wanted to go with him. I am an excellent hacker as you might have realized and I tried to give information about some other of Merlyn’s criminal plans to the police, but they didn’t find anything that could have proved my assertion and had to let him go. It’s a little complicated, but anyway, Oliver and his father went on the boat. Since I knew that the boat was going to go down, I tried to find out what would happen to them and where to look for them when they would go missing. I hacked into a satellite and saw what was going on on that island and decided to save you. I kept an eye on what A.R.G.U.S. and the government did with Lian Yu afterwards, and-“

“Oliver is coming back,” Shado interrupted in a whisper. “We will do it. And we will keep you informed via satellite phone. ASIS will find out your number for us. Where do we find the serum you were talking about?”

“Dr. Ivo will have a plan. If he doesn’t, call me, and I will direct you to where it is.”

The moment Oliver stepped closer, Shado lifted her gaze and smiled at him when she said, “It was really nice to meet you, Oliver. But I guess it’s time that Slade and I leave you two alone. I hope we didn’t destroy any too important evening plans.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Oliver replied with a smile. “I am glad I got the chance to meet the two of you. I hope it won’t be the last time.”

“I hope so, too,” Shado answered.

When Slade and Shado got up, Felicity did, too. Shado hugged Felicity while Slade and Oliver shook hands. When Shado turned to Oliver, Slade put his arms around Felicity just like Shado had, but his hug was a lot tighter and less gentle than Shado’s.

“If any of this is a trap, I’ll come back, I’ll find you and I’ll kill you,” he whispered into her ear.

“Got it,” Felicity whispered back and moved out of his hold.

With one last smile towards Felicity, Shado took Slade’s hand and the two of them left the restaurant. Felicity looked after them. Hopefully everything would go right and they would come back safely. Anatoli would be safe and they would be safe. Maybe she could even ask them for help in her mission. They were smart. They had skills. And they had morals. Her current partner seemed to miss on the last characteristic feature sometimes.

Felicity knew deep in her heart that Nyssa wasn’t a bad person. Before her time travel she had seen Nyssa’s love for Sara. She had seen her friendship to Laurel. And Felicity knew that Nyssa’s life had been under the influence of her father too much for her to be a normal, caring person. Ra’s wasn’t the one to teach mercy and forgiveness to his children. She still hoped that there was hope for Nyssa in this world where Sara wouldn’t be part of the League. Maybe that was even the key for her to become a part of a normal world far away from the League of psychotic murderers. If it was even possible to lead a normal life after you have been raised like that.

“Are you ready to go?”

Oliver’s voice pulled her back into presence. When Felicity lifted her gaze to smile at him and suggest that they could take a walk or something to enjoy the night, her heart stopped beating, though. Oliver hadn’t looked too happy the whole evening, but now he seemed really sad. There was no smile on his face, not even a faked one. He looked down on the floor and kept his hands in the depth of his pockets.

“Sure,” she said quietly. “Let’s go.”

On their way back to the hotel room Oliver didn’t say a word. His head leaned against the window, his eyes watching the streetlights without any affection. Felicity bit her tongue and thought about taking his hand or saying something, but Oliver kept his hands away from her and he didn’t really look like he wanted to talk.

It was her fault, she told herself. She hadn’t done anything to give him the impression that she enjoyed being here with him. And now he was sad and she didn’t know what to do because there was nothing she could say that would explain her behavior. Or at least there was nothing she could say to him.

Telling Oliver about the mission. This was what it always came back to. Felicity knew that she couldn’t keep it a secret much longer. She had to tell him sooner or later and rationally she knew that she should do it rather sooner than later, but… It would change everything. How was she going to explain that Malcolm Meryln had planned on killing his father and had almost killed him, too? If she told Oliver the truth, then she needed to tell him the whole truth and that included the incident with Malcolm Meryln. She had ordered his death, orphaning Tommy. She had formed an alliance with the League of psychotic murderers and she had allowed one of them to be part of her life.

Oliver was never going to forgive her for that or at least not anytime soon.

When they entered their hotel room, Felicity closed the door behind her and watched Oliver take off his jacket. He stood in the middle of the room with his shoulders slumped and his head bent down. He looked beaten. And it was her fault.

“Oliver?” she said quietly, but he didn’t answer.

Felicity bit her lip once more before she slowly approached him and put a hand to his elbow. As soon as her fingertips made contact with his skin, Oliver moved his arm away from her touch. He distanced himself three steps away before he turned around and looked at her with tears in his eyes.

“I’ve been trying to shut this feeling down,” he explained with shaking voice. “I’ve been trying to tell myself that you are just busy with your work and just needed more time for yourself because that is who you are, but…”

But she had taken it too far. She hadn’t done enough to prove to him how much she loved him. She had let him down over and over and over again. And she didn’t even have a good explanation or excuse for it. She just did it and asked him to not leave her nonetheless. And until now he had always done it.

“If I hadn’t come in, would you have told me that your friends are in town and suggested that we should all go have dinner together?” he asked after a while, cocking his head. “Or would you have kept their visit to yourself?”

Felicity hesitated. She could lie and tell him that she would have told him, but…  
She lowered her gaze guiltily, staring at the floor. No, she wouldn’t have told him. She even wished he hadn’t met them. But that was only one more thing she couldn’t tell him as long as she couldn’t tell him everything else.

“You wouldn’t have told me,” Oliver whispered in conclusion to her silence. “You wouldn’t have told me because you don’t let me be a part of your life.”

Felicity looked up at him, already breathing in to say something, but Oliver shook his head, and she closed her mouth again, just looking at him.

“Okay, Felicity, I need to ask this,” he said with a sigh. “Is this some kind of revenge? A game? Did you think, ‘That guy wanted to cheat on his girlfriend with his sister, so now I am going to make him fall madly in love with me and show him how much it hurts when you are being played with’? I would get it because I would deserve it. It’s just that if that was your plan, you have already finished it because I think I know how much it hurts when-“

“I love you, Oliver,” Felicity said, a tear running down her cheek. “I really, really love you.”

“Then why don’t you let me in? Why don’t you let me be a part of your life? Why did you want it to keep a secret for so long and why did you-”

“I invited my mother over to come to Starling and meet you in three weeks,” Felicity explained. “That is no explanation for my behavior and I get that you think that I am playing with you, but my last relationship ended kind of badly and… I am not used to sharing things. I talk a lot, but not about the important stuff. But I did tell my mother about us and asked her to come here and meet you and I know it doesn’t seem like a lot because I got to know your parents from the first day on, but it is an important step to me.”

It wasn’t a lie. It was the truth. Felicity had called Donna and told her about her relationship. Oliver knew that. She had told him before their travel to Russia. Felicity had also asked Donna to come here. That was something Oliver hadn’t known until now because Felicity had planned on surprising him with it. And to be honest, she had been kind of afraid to tell him. Even if he seemed to mean it serious with her, getting to know your girlfriend’s mother could make a man run away easily. It wasn’t fair to blame this on him, though. Oliver was just great.

“Is that the truth?” Oliver asked frowning. “Or did you just make this up and then you will tell me that your mother is sick or you will call her and ask her to come because now you have said it?”

“We can call her if you want,” Felicity suggested.”I understand if you don’t trust me enough to believe me right now.”

“No, it’s okay,” Oliver said. Sighing, he took a few steps forward until he was right in front her. Gently he wiped away some tears from her cheeks, cupped her face and kissed her softly. “I am sorry for what I said. I… Today was exhausting and I felt like we didn’t spend that much time with each other and-“

“It’s okay,” Felicity interrupted him, feeling terribly guilty that Oliver blamed this on himself when it was clearly her. “Please just know that I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Oliver answered.

He leaned down once more, kissing her again. Felicity slid her arms around his torso, and pulled him closer while simultaneously pressing herself closer to his body. She straightened onto her tiptoes so she could deepen the kiss and sighed into his mouth when he opened his lips and their tongues met.

She needed to find a way to balance her lives. And she needed to find it soon, Felicity thought. Otherwise it was only a matter of time before Oliver wouldn’t take it anymore and leave her. And she didn’t really treat herself well with lying to him either. Her guilty conscience was eating her alive and it got only worse. She needed to find a way to balance her lives and to do that she needed to find allies that would help her to find a way to take out the criminals without leaving a trace of dead bodies behind her.

She needed help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I haven't updated in a while. Sorry for that. Maybe you have even noticed the reason for that while readinng this chapter. Right now I am not really in the story. I sounds strange, but I don't really feel it right now. I didn't want you to wait too long for the chapter, so I published it even though I am not 100% satisfied. I edited it like a thousand times I don't get rid of the feeling that readers will notice the difference between this chapter and the last ones. 
> 
> Well, there are three more chapters about to come and I will write them soon, I think.  
> After that I think I need to take a break from the series. I have really good story ideas for part 4 and part 5, even a slight idea what part 6 could be about, and the truth is, the real fun will only start with part 4. Part 4 is where I always wanted to write in this series, but as long as I am not really back in the story writing it would ruin the fics for you.  
> My plan is to end "Forming alliances", then write a complete different fic I have thought about for a while, and then come back to write further parts. I hope that is okay with you.  
> I just wanted to let you know. :)


	5. Chapter 5

Felicity’s guilty conscience only made her feel worse the next day. Well, at least it bugged her in the pit of her stomach. She tried to ignore it as good as she could, though. She could still wallow in self-pity when this fabulous day Oliver had planned out of the two of them was over. She needed to allow herself to enjoy the day like she wanted to. Maybe she didn’t deserve it, but Oliver did.

He must have put so much work in this, Felicity thought, leaning her head to his shoulder while they headed back to their hotel late in the evening.

The day had started with breakfast in bed. Oliver had kissed her cheek and her neck, whispering sweet words of love into her ear to make her wake up. At the end the delicious smell of coffee had been what had made her open her eyes and sit up in bed, only to see the large breakfast he had ordered. Muffins, Pancakes, at least five different versions of eggs, Croissants and God knew what else.

“Since I know your breakfast habits too well, I thought everything on the card was just what you needed,” he had said with a wide grin, and Felicity had grabbed the collar of his shirt to pull him down and press a kiss to his lips as a big thank you for knowing her so well and ordering breakfast and basically everything else.

They had taken their time, eating and chatting about the stupidest things that had made them laugh. They had had a lot of fun that had included a pillow fight that had ended in a lasting, passionate kiss. Felicity had wanted to deepen that. She had pulled Oliver down on top of her, immediately feeling aroused by the feeling of his muscular body against hers, but before anything else had happened, Oliver had rolled off of her and told her breathlessly that she needed to get dresses because he had plans for them.

So Felicity had put on one of her dresses, her shoes, her glasses and waited for Oliver to tell her where they would go, but he had only grinned amusedly and waved a piece of silk in front of her eyes, showing her with a circling movement of his index finger that she should turn around. When he had tied the silk so her eyes were covered, he turned her around to him and pressed a short kiss to her lips. God, how come the sexiness only increased when you couldn’t see?, she had thought, or at least she had believed that she had only thought it until Oliver had started chuckling and she had blushed in embarrassment.

Oliver had kept talking to her while he had led her down and helped to climb on the backseat of the car. He hadn’t revealed where they would go, but had promised that they would have a lot of fun and that she would love it because they would have a great view. Felicity had tried to guess their designation, but hadn’t been successful.

So instead he had helped her out of the car and led her a few steps away before he had come to stand behind her and taken off the silk from her eyes to reveal the surprise.

“Wow… a Ferris wheel,” Felicity had said with a nervous smile, starting to chew on her bottom lip.

“240 feet and like I said we will have a-“ Oliver had started, but had interrupted himself when he had seen the expression on his girlfriend’s face. She had seemed nervous, scared even. “Felicity, are you okay?”

“I don’t know if I have ever told you,” she had said, feeling weirdly nauseated by the sight of the Ferris Wheel alone, “but I am afraid of heights. Terribly afraid, I fear.”

Oliver hadn’t said a word for a moment, too surprised by Felicity’s statement. He hadn’t known that because if he had, he hadn’t planned the ride. Of course he hadn’t!

“Oh,” he had said. “In that case we just… skip… this item on the agenda and do something else, right?”

He had already been tugging at her hand to make her come with him to wherever he had wanted to go instead, but Felicity had kept standing where she had been, staring at the monster of a Ferris Wheel. Oliver had planned this out because it was romantic and because he had wanted to do something romantic with her. That had been great. She had loved that, but…

“Felicity, we don’t have to do that,” he had explained, stepping in front of her and framing her face gently. “You are afraid of heights. I know that now. Maybe I have known before and just forgot. Anyway, it’s not that big deal. We can just do something else and-“

Felicity had interrupted him with a kiss to his lips and said, “Don’t dare to let my hand go for even the shortest second.”

He had smiled at her and they had taken a ride on the Ferris Wheel together just like he had planned. Felicity had clung to his hand, digging her nails to his skin in fear, but Oliver had only held her hand in his, pressed kisses to her cheeks and whispered comforting words into her ear. So Felicity had been able to get through the drive without vomiting even if the strong desire to empty her stomach on the floor had lasted even for the first minutes back on the ground.

They had continued with lunch in a tramway. They had basically made a sightseeing tour through the city while drinking wine, eating steak and sharing a chocolate soufflé. Well, Oliver had planned to share it, but had soon realized that Felicity wasn’t the one to share dessert and had generously let her eat the whole thing. He had enjoyed watching her eat the dessert more than eating it anyway.

After lunch they had taken a walk to the Padlock Tress of love to which newlywedded couples secured a lock with their names on it and threw the key from the bridge and into the river. Oliver had told her that it had been a symbol for faithfulness and enduring love. Felicity had wordlessly admired the trees, quietly thinking how great it would be to do something like this one day, too. Oliver had only smiled and pulled out a lock with their names on it. Of course he had led her there for a reason. So they had secured the lock to one of the metal trees together and had thrown the key into the river. It had been a great feeling.

Their last designation had been a waterbus where they had had dinner. More wine, delicious food and to show Oliver how much she had enjoyed the whole day, she had even shared the dessert this time. Three-quarter of it had still been for her, but at least he had gotten more of it than from the dessert after lunch.

It had all been so perfect, Felicity thought again and sighed softly. She rested her chin on Oliver’s shoulder and just stared at him. He had his eyes closed, and a small smile was playing on his lips. He looked so much at peace. She would never get tired of seeing him like that. She could spend the rest of her life just staring at him like this.

“Felicity, this is me noticing you’re staring at me,” he said without opening his eyes.

It made her smile. Although they were in a different run of time and so many things were different here, sometimes Oliver said the same things he had said before her time travel. And it made her smile each time.

“Did I thank you already for this perfect day?” she asked with a smile on her lips.

“You did thank me at least seven times already,” he said, still smiling with his eyes closed. “But you can keep going and stroke my ego if that is what makes you happy.”

“Oh no, you are already getting cocky,” she replied, pretending to be annoyed. “I should fix that. This day was so awful. What were you thinking?”

Chuckling, Oliver opened his eyes, turned his head and kissed her forehead. He pulled back slightly to look her in the eyes before he said, “It was really nice, you know. Spending a day where it is just the two of us. We should do this more often when we are back in Starling.”

Felicity nodded and kissed the side of his jaw, his stubble tickling her lips. “I agree.”

She leaned her head back against his shoulder and thought about that plan. She needed to find a way to make it work. It could work. Obviously. She had had this perfect day today because she had help to work on her mission. Slade had called and told her that he, Shado and his friends from ASIS had arrived at Lian Yu and he wanted to call again when Ivo and his men were taken out and the Mirakuru was destroyed, but there hadn’t been another call yet.

When they were back in Starling City, Felicity would work harder on finding a way to make it work. She wanted to spend more time with Oliver, time that she didn’t have to spend worrying about the mission she had started.

They arrived at the hotel a few minutes later and headed towards their suite immediately. Felicity’s feet hurt slightly, but she was wide awake again. The drive back to the hotel had made her tired, but watching Oliver lighten the fireplace, watching the play of his muscles, made all tiredness disappear.

“You’re staring again,” Oliver said with a smile when he approached her on the bed, dropped a short kiss to the crown of her head and then sat down next to her.

“I love you, you know that?”

“I might doubt it from time to time, but at the end of the day I am pretty sure that you love me, yes,” Oliver said with a nod of his head.

“Don’t doubt it, please,” Felicity whispered and climbed on his lap, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his hips. “I know that I behave strange. I know that it might look like I don’t love you or anything, but I do love you. A lot.”

Oliver looked her in the eyes for a long time, not saying a word. She could see how he eyed her up to make sure that her words were true and that she really meant what she said. She did mean what she had said. And she needed him to believe her. More than a minute had passed before Oliver nodded slowly.

“I believe you. And I love you, too.”

Smiling in relief, she leaned forward to capture his lips with hers. The kiss started as a slow and gentle one. Their tongues met in a familiar dance they had both memorized during the weeks they had spent kissing each other now. It wasn’t long, though, until the kiss became more passionate. Oliver put his hands to her hips and when she moved closer, knowing that he would let her decide on how fast or slow they would go, his arms wrapped around her to hold her close.

Felicity moved her hands down his chest until she found the hem of his shirt. She slowly moved it up his body until Oliver lifted his hands and moved his lips away from hers to give her the chance to take the shirt off. When their lips met again, the kiss was more hurried, more fiercely. Oliver’s teeth scraped her bottom lip, and it made her groan into his mouth. His lips moved down her neck, Felicity massaged the back of his neck and whispered, “Open my dress, Oliver.”

Their lips parted, and their eyes locked while Oliver pulled down the zipper of her dress. Felicity felt goosebumps spread all over her skin due to the slight touch of his fingertips on her back. When the zipper was down, Felicity lifted herself off his lap with the strength of her thighs, so Oliver could move the thin fabric of her dress up over her hips. His hands continued their path up her body when she sat back down. It wasn’t until he took the fabric off completely and thew it to the floor that he broke the eyecontact to let his gaze travel down her body. His hands followed the path of his eyes, moving from her shoulders over her arms and hips down her thighs and back up again.

There was no fear of losing one another right now like there had been in Nanda Parbat. There were just them. And it was perfect.

After Oliver took off her bra, he turned them, so he was lying on top of her. His lips moved down her jaw and her neck to her breasts. His lips and tongue caressed her breasts. When his lips closed around her left nipple and he sucked gently, Felicity closed her arms around his head, to keep him where he was. Her hips moved against his body in a random rhythm. She could feel a fire built inside of her and quietly whispered his names. The sensations that ripped through her body when he hummed around her nipples made her eyes fly open.

“Oliver.”

Whatever he had heard in her voice made him stop and look into her face.

“Too fast?” he asked.

“No, it’s- it’s- this,” she gestured between the two of them. “This is perfect. Really perfect. I love what you do to my body and how you caress it and it is really great and everything. Couldn’t be better. Crowning moment of a perfect day and-“

Oliver interrupted her with a long kiss to her lips. He hovered over her, looking directly into her eyes, when he said, “I love your babbling, but it doesn’t help me understand what is bothering you.”

“Mirror,” Felicity just said and pointed at the ceiling with her index finger. “It’s strange to watch that.”

Oliver followed her gaze before he turned them around once again, so he was lying with his back to the mattress. Rubbing his hips against hers slowly, he mumbled, “I am all yours.”

Felicity lowered her head, pressed a short kiss to his lips and then moved her lips down his chin and neck to his chest. She had touched and kissed that chest in Nanda Parbat. She had spent some time on teasing him by caressing his scars with her lips, her tongue and her teeth, but there were no scars now, no permanent marks of a dark past. Just when Felicity was about to lick down his abs, he feels him shifting underneath her before he groans her name in a frustrated voice. Questioningly she looked up, and he pointed to the ceiling just like she had a few minutes ago.

“I can’t look at this either. It is distracting and… I don’t know,” he answered honestly, making her chuckle. “What are we going to do now?”

“Well, there has to be some kind of way to not be forced to watch themselves, right?” Felicity asked and reached out for the remote on her nightstand. If the shutters and the light and the air conditioning could be controlled by it, then the mirror certainly too. It took her more time than she was proud to say, but finally she found the right button to make some kind of panel move over the mirror until it was covered.

Satisfied, she threw the remote to the side and straddled Oliver’s lips once more, asking, “Where were we?”

 

 

Sometime later they lay together in bed, wrapped around each other, cuddling. Oliver’s fingertips moved gently up and down her spine while Felicity’s cheek rested on his chest. Her eyes were already closed, but she hummed contently.

Oliver was a great… Well, lover sounded still too creepy. He was a great boyfriend, inside and outside the bed. It had been perfect. It sounded sappy and cliché, but it was the truth. During their night in Nanda Parbat their lovemaking had been overshadowed by the knowledge that they would have to leave each other. This time it had been just them, just two people who took the next step in their relationship.

“Are you okay?” Oliver finally broke the silence that had settled between them.

Felicity smiled and pressed her lips to his chest. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“You aren’t talking. That is quite rare.”

“Then enjoy the silence. I am too tired,” she mumbled with a yawn and moved to rest fully on top of him, her arms around his waist.

“Do you want to sleep?” he asked before he pressed a kiss to the crown of her head.

She mumbled something he probably couldn’t understand because he only chuckled and kept stroking her spine. Again silence settled until Felicity’s stomach made strange sounds that made Oliver laugh so hard that his whole body shook, making hers shake, too, in the process.

“Are you sure you want to sleep because it sounds a lot like you’d like to eat something instead.”

Felicity groaned and rolled off of him, putting one arms over her eyes.

“Okay, go get me something to eat,” she growled before she rememebered her good education and added, “please.”

Chuckling, Oliver pressed a kiss to her lips and rolled out of bed. He put his boxers back on, mumbled something about getting her something to eat and then left the room, only looking back to wink at her.

Felicity couldn’t stop the smile on her face. She couldn’t even why this step had meant to much to her. Maybe because it only felt real now although… it still didn’t feel completely real. She still felt like she was caught in some kind of dream or afterlife and one day this little bubble was going to burst and she would realize that none of this was true. Shaking her head, she rolled on her side and closed her eyes.

She shouldn’t think about things like that because if this was a dream, then it was a great dream and she should try to enjoy it as long as it lasted. And if this was her afterlife, then this was her eternity and she should get used to it rather sooner than later.

When her phone rang, she reached out for it blindly and took the call without looking on the display. “You know, instead of calling from the other room to ask me what I wanted, you could have just chosen for me.”

“Sorry to disappoint you.”

Felicity sat up in bed abruptly, barely managing to keep the blanket wrapped around her torso. Well, there wasn’t anyone who could see her anyway, but still it felt strange talking to Slade on the phone while she was naked. She was technically still naked, but at least she had the blanket around her.

“Did everything go well?”

“Expect us to be back in the late afternoon to early evening tomorrow,” he answered. His voice was almost a growl.

“That soon.”

“You wanted it to go soon, right?”

“Right,” she answered. “What about the serum?”

“It’s destroyed. Just like you wanted it.”

“Thank you,” Felicity said, but Slade had already hung up.

She stared at the phone for a short moment. Maybe she already knew how to balance the two parts of her life.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry it took me that long to update! I never let anyone wait that long and I hope I will never let anyone wait that long again! Thanks all of you so much for staying patient!
> 
> I can promise that the next chapter is going to be published next Sunday

She woke up to the soft feelings of his gentle lips against her skin, the warmth of his naked chest pressing to her equally naked back and his strong arm wrapping around her waist from behind. Smiling, she opened her lips to wish him a good morning, but all that escaped her lips was a content sigh when Oliver sucked at the skin right above her pulse point and his arm pulled her closer to his broad body. She felt the play of muscles on her back and couldn’t help the smile that widened on her lips.

“Good morning,” he whispered. His breath ghosted over the skin of her neck, tickling her slightly, and Felicity’s smile widened even more.

“Morning,” she mumbled sleepily.

She turned around with her eyes still closed and sought out Oliver’s lips blindly, moving her own above them without ever really touching them. She only opened her eyes shortly to find Oliver smiling at her, watching her face like he was trying to memorize it. But the moment he moved his face forward, his eyes closed, and the moment their lips met in a gentle kiss, hers did closed again, too.

It was just perfect. After their night in Nanda Parbat, they hadn’t gotten the opportunity to sleep much. They had lain in bed together and hold each other for a while until they had gotten thirsty and Felicity had gotten out of bed and mixed the drugged drink for him to save him. Their morning after – or rather further in the night after since it hadn’t been morning then – had been tainted by the knowledge that they had needed to separate and Oliver would have to join the League. But this… this was perfect.

“You know,” Felicity sighed when Oliver’s lips moved from hers down her chin and jaw to her neck, kissing the same spot he had when she had woken up while she stroked her hands up and down his back muscular back, still not used to the unscarred skin although she had only touched his scarred back like this once, too, “if this is a dream, I don’t want it to ever end.”

Oliver rolled her over, so she was lying on her back with him hovering above her. He stayed propped up onto his forearms to not crush her with his weight, but he lowered himself enough for his chest to at least slightly touch her nipples. Felicity opened her eyes with a sigh to find him already looking at her with a happy smile on his lips. She would never get tired of how much he was smiling and how happy and unburdened he was.

“It’s not a dream, Felicity,” he whispered. “It’s all real.”

He lowered his head to hers, kissing her gently and lovingly. Felicity sighed into the kiss and wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him down onto her and deepen the kiss. But the moment she moved her hands down his back and to his butt, intending to move his hips against hers, Oliver pulled away, propping back onto his forearms before rolling over to the other side of the bed.

“Sorry, no time for that this morning,” he said with a mixture of amusement and disappointment in his voice. “I was already called six times because I am supposed to check how the preparations for the anniversary party tonight are going. I guess if I don’t call back soon, they will come here and drag me out of bed physically, and I think I rather keep this sight to myself.”

He let his eyes travel down her body that was only covered with the blanket. Felicity felt herself blush, and Oliver grinned amusedly when he saw.

“Do you want me to come with you?” Felicity asked.

Oliver shook his head and leaned down to kiss her once more. “Stay in bed, enjoy the day, relax. And keep in mind what you wanted to do before. We will do that after the anniversary party tonight.”

Felicity bit her bottom lip. “Can’t wait.”

With one more kiss to her lips Oliver crawled out of bed and went over to the shower, not forgetting to leer at her when he passed the milk glass shower wall. As soon as the door closed behind him, Felicity let herself fall into the pillows, smiling like an idiot. Everything seemed to work perfectly. After last night she was more convinced than ever that everything was going to be fine.

They were together and they were happy and there were no major obstacles that were threatening to separate them.

At least none but her lying, her guilty conscience reminded her. She was still lying to him about being the Green Arrow. And she knew that the longer she lied, the worse it would get when she would finally tell him. But fact was that she still hadn’t figured out how to do it. How was she supposed to be the Green Arrow and actually do good without any help? First the League had helped, then Nyssa and now Shado and Slade.

But Felicity would have to keep away from the League. She just couldn’t work with them. How was she supposed to? She had seen what they were capable of. Working with them was like getting into bed with the devil. It would only endanger her and everything she was working for.

She had hoped Nyssa could be her partner in crime, but after everything that had happened here, Felicity wasn’t sure how she was supposed to trust Nyssa. Back after the Undertaking she had told Oliver that he needed to find another way than to kill people. Not doing so herself would mean living double standards. Besides, living with the knowledge that Nyssa was killing people kind of in her name wasn’t something Felicity could ever be able to live with, either.  
So Nyssa unfortunately didn’t qualify for her partner.

Now there were Shado and Slade. From all the people who had helped her during her missions, they seemed to be the best option. They could teach her how to fight and help her at least as long as she wasn’t able to take care of everything herself. What Felicity needed was her own knowledge of especially computer science, Oliver’s fighting skills and John’s ability to keep a cool head. Somehow she had the impression that Shado and Slade could help her with the last two things.

As soon as they were here, she would ask them about whether they could join her mission for longer than only Anatoli’s rescue, so they could help her and train her. She would have her own team. And maybe then she could finally tell Oliver because once she had a real plan in mind how things were going to work long-ragingly, she could answer all the possible questions he would have when she told him.

But everything depended on whether Shado and Slade would agree to help her. If they didn’t, she would be no step further than before this mission. She would still have no idea what to do and how to handle the responsibility she had taken.

Sighing, Felicity rolled onto her sigh. She was going to go back to sleep for a few more hours and then she would spend the day in her pink bubble of love. She could still worry if Slade and Shado were back and indeed refused to help her. As long as that didn’t happen, she would just pretend that everything was okay.

This day was too great to spend it worrying as long as there wasn’t any real reason to worry.

 

 

Felicity was worried. She just couldn’t help it. No matter how often she told herself that she was overreacting and there was no reason for how worried she was, she couldn’t help but have this bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Slade and Shado still hadn’t called to say that they had arrived in Moscow. The way from the island to Russia was long, but Felicity just had a bad feeling about it. It was making her nervous.

She pulled her phone out of the small purse she held in her lap and checked for any new messages or missed calls, but there weren’t any. The screen just showed the photo Oliver had taken of the two of them sometime ago when they had cuddled on the couch while watching a movie. She had been wearing one of his hoodies, and her face had been snuggled to his neck as she had fallen asleep before the movie had ended.

“Everything alright?” Oliver asked, putting a hand to her knee.

Felicity looked up at him. He was sitting next to her in the limousine that was taking them to the place where the party for the anniversary was going to find place. He was wearing a smoking and tuxes since he had come back to the hotel after the last preparations had been made to change into some more formal clothes. At least he had changed into them as soon as he had been able to take his eyes off the skin that had been exposed on her back thanks to the cutout of her red dress.

“Yes, I am fine,” she said hastily, shaking her head and putting her phone back into her purse. She took the one of his hands that was resting on her knees and lifted it to her lips, pressing a kiss to his palm. Smiling, she wiped the slight color of her lipstick that stuck to his skin away and enclosed his hands with both of hers in her lap.

She needed to pull herself together or otherwise Oliver was going to notice even more that there was something going on with her. The more he noticed, the more he would ask and the more she would have to lie to him. And she didn’t want to lie. She knew that keeping secrets wasn’t better, but staying passive seemed to be the better way than actively lying to him.

“Nervous?” he asked. Felicity looked at Oliver once again, perking her eyebrows. And Oliver chuckled. “I know we are not together that long yet, but I hope I know you at least that well.”

She bit down on her bottom lip, but Oliver immediately lifted his free hand and freed her lip from the maltreatment of her teeth. Then he kissed her shortly, pulling her bottom lip between his like he was trying to soothe a pain that wasn’t there. When their lips parted and Oliver pulled away slightly, he looked at her with his piercing blue eyes, and it almost took her breath away.

“Don’t worry,” he whispered. “I know it is a big step, but it’ll be worth it, and no matter what the others say, we both know why we are together. Right?”

It took Felicity a moment before she understood. Today was the first time that they openly presented themselves as a couple. Until now only their closest family and friends knew. The moment they would leave the limousine and let reporters take photos of them, everybody would know, especially the people at QC. And then the gossip would start. Felicity could already hear people talking about her being a gold digger and sleeping herself up the ladder when she had only recently started working at QC, while Oliver was only using her to… have a vagina available when he needed one?

Felicity watched Oliver frown while his nose was scrunching and his eyebrows perking.

“I said that out loud, right?” she asked.

Oliver nodded, the expression on his face not changing.

“Sorry,” she added.

Squeezing her hand, Oliver said, “If anyone at Queen Consolidated ever says something like that, you come to me and tell me. And I will get them fired.”

“I am a big girl, Oliver,” she smiled, weirdly touched by his words. “I can protect myself.”

“I know you can,” he answered, his smile matching hers. He leaned forward and kissed her gently. “But fact is that you don’t need to. We’re a team, right?”

“Right,” she said with a nod of her head and Oliver kissed her once more.

Sighing, Felicity rested her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes. They should arrive at the party location any minute, so she wanted to enjoy the few last seconds that she had Oliver all for herself. She lowered her nose to his neck and breathed him in. Being so close to Oliver comforted her. It was just nice to have him so close here. Just another thing she would never get enough of.

It was strange. The thought of losing him because of her lies should be enough for her to tell him the truth, but there was this little voice inside of her that kept telling her that she would lose him even if she told him now – no matter how much she kept thinking that the sooner she told him, the better – because she already had started lying. So maybe not telling him until she could explain him how she envisioned to do all of this in the future was helping. In whatever way.

“Oliver?”

“Hm?” he hummed with his lips against the crown of her head.

“I love you,” she whispered, needing to know that he knew.

“I love you, too,” he replied, and she could feel the uplift of his lips against her skin. “Very much.”

Felicity sighed and let the words wash over her. No matter how often she heard him say it, it still made her heart rise and beat like crazy.

When the limousine stopped, Felicity sighed once more. It was time.

The door opened from the outside and photoflashes almost blinded her before she had even climbed out of the car. Oliver held his hand out for her, helping her to get out of the car although she was barely able to see anything. He wrapped his arm around her middle, the tips of his fingers dancing over the exposed skin on her back, just like he had told her they would all evening long when he had first seen her in this dress tonight.

They went straight to the entrance, not stopping once although some reporters were calling for them to make a stop and let them take a photo. Felicity hadn’t anticipated that many reporters to be here. She knew that in Starling City the interest in the Queen family was only partly caused by the company they owned. It was their importance and their influence on the city in general that was making them so interesting. So Felicity hadn’t thought that the Russian media would be that interested in Oliver being here. But she should have known that the anniversary was an important thing, even here in Moscow.

“Hardest part is over already,” Oliver whispered into her ear when they entered the spacious room that was nicely decorated for the party. “From now on it is only shaking hands and smiling.”

“And dancing?” Felicity asked with a short glance to the band that was playing music, expecting him to explain that he didn’t dance because she knew that he didn’t.

“If you want your feet to be hurt, sure,” he replied instead, pressing a short kiss to her temple before he directed his gaze to the man who was approaching them with a wide smile.

Nikolai Bukov wore a black smoking and a bow tie, just like Oliver. Unlike Felicity’s boyfriend, he looked tensed, though. She could see it even if he was hiding it behind a smile. Felicity looked around shortly, wondering whether he had brought his wife, but she couldn’t find her.

“Mr. Queen, Ms. Smoak,” he said, shaking their hands and waving for a waitress to come, “I hope everything is the way you imagined it.”

“Yes, of course it is,” Oliver answered with a smile.

When the waitress approached, Mr. Bukov gave each of them a glass of champagne, then took one himself and held it in front of him to propose a toast.

“To another ten years of great company history and fruitful corporation of our families,” he said and they chinked glasses.

“Speaking of family,” she said, “where is your wife? I was looking forward to talk to her.”

She noticed the slight frown on Oliver’s face, but she concentrated on Mr. Bukov’s reaction. He had his glass lifted halfway to his lips, but stopped at her question, even if only shortly. He drank a little of the champagne, his eyes never leaving her face. Then he answered, “She felt sick, so she stayed in bed. She sends her apology, but it was a very exhausting day for her, and we got a few problems with our new driver.”

Now it was Felicity who frowned. The way Mr. Bukov had added the last part of his sentence made it sound like there was more to know about it and like she was supposed to know what this more meant. But she didn’t.

“Please excuse me, I have some people to welcome,” Mr. Bukov said with a smile before Felicity got the change to say anything and he walked away.

Felicity’s eyes followed him to a young couple that had just entered the room. Something was off about the guy. Well, she knew had already known that before, but she was feeling it even more strongly now.

And that lead her back to the problem that was still there even though Slade and Shado had saved Anatoli and the Mirakuru had been destroyed. The Bratva was still using Queen Consolidated for their illegal weapon trafficking. She couldn’t do anything about that. Even if she got everyone fired, there would be new members again. The Bratva was everywhere. Besides, a scandal like that would lead to economic loss. People would get fired even though they had nothing to do with it.

How come that every time one problem was solved another one seemed to be there?

“Everything alright?” Oliver asked worriedly. The tips of his fingers moved over the naked skin over her spine.

“Yeah,” Felicity said hastily, shaking her head. “I just… I don’t know… I just don’t like the guy.”

Oliver frowned, but Felicity waved it away. She smiled at him instead and pecked his lips shortly. Just when he was about to say something more, the public relations officer of the subsidiary approached them.

“Mr. Queen, there are a few people I would like you to meet,” he explained. Taking a short look back at Felicity, Oliver nodded and hand in hand they followed the young man.

The next hour was filled with shaking what felt like a thousand hands. The head of PR would lead them to people, they would shake hands and do some small talk. And just when the strangers would decide that they should talk to some other people and not keep the couple to themselves any longer, the head of PR would appear right to their side and introduce them to more people.

Felicity had known that it was going to be like that when she had agreed to come here with Oliver. She just hadn’t anticipated that it would be that exhausting and she wouldn’t get a single second to say a private word to Oliver or take another look at her phone to check whether there were any news from Shado and Slade.

Just like reading her thoughts, when the next conversation with another stranger, an important Russian business man, was over and the head of PR approached to drag them to the next people they needed to be introduced to, Oliver tightened his arm around Felicity’s waist, pulling her closer and stating, “You wanna dance?”

“Oh, I don’t know…” Felicity said hastily, “shouldn’t we…?”

“We can still meet more people later. Now I want to dance,” he replied and kissed the tip of her nose.

He took her hand and pulled her to the dance floor. Only two other couples were dancing, but Oliver obviously didn’t mind. He wrapped his arm back around her waist to pull her right to his chest. His free hand took hers and placed it in his chest. She could feel his heartbeat underneath the palm of her hand. She felt the urge to rest her head on his shoulder, but need to look into his piercing blue eyes while slowly swaying to the music was stronger.

Dance. They had never danced before her time travel. She wished they had. But there were so many things that they had been denied in that original run of time. Here they could catch up on all of those things.

“I wish we wouldn’t have to go back tomorrow,” Oliver said after a while. “It’s nice being here with you.”

“Same,” Felicity sighed. “And I am sorry for being so… distracted when at the beginning of the week and-“

Oliver shook his head and interrupted her words with a short kiss. “Let’s not talk about that. We are fine, aren’t we?”

“We are,” Felicity agreed with a nod of her head. “I am still sorry, though.”

But Oliver shook his head once more and tightened his grip on her, wordlessly telling her that everything was alright and there was no way to worry. It almost made her feel sick, knowing that she was lying to him.

“So… what is your mother like?” he suddenly asked and Felicity perked her eyebrows in surprise. Oliver chuckled. “You said I get to meet her, so I was wondering what to plan for when she visits.”

“My mother is,” Felicity stopped shortly before she finished the sentence, “my mother.”

Oliver grinned, but perked his eyebrows in question. Felicity shrugged her shoulders, wanting to add something, but she felt the familiar vibration of her phone in her purse, so instead of saying something more about her mother, she stopped dancing and said, “Sorry, I think I just got a message and my mom wanted to...”

She trailed off, took her phone and saw that there was a message from an unknown number, telling her to come outside in the garden behind the building because they needed to talk to her. Although she knew that it could be a trap from the Bratva, something told her that the message had been sent by Slade. Something in the tone assured her of that.

“Would you mind if I went outside for a minute to call my mom?” Felicity asked, feeling another wave of nausea for lying once more, even if this lie was a really small one compared to some of the others she was telling him.

“No, go,” Oliver answered. “Tell her I said hi.”

“I will,” Felicity lied, pecking his lips shortly and hurrying outside onto the terrace.

She knew that the building was well secured. There were cameras everywhere and at least twenty security men, but given where Slade and Shado came from, it was probably easy for them to get into the small garden area without being seen. Felicity closed the door to the terrace behind her and looked around. There was only one lamp switched on, but it didn’t spend a lot of light. And since she just couldn’t see as well with her contacts as she did with her glasses, she couldn’t make out anyone in the dark.

Maybe it was a trap after all, Felicity thought nervously, but as soon as the thought had crossed her mind, two familiar people stepped out of the dark without stepping too far away from the wall, probably staying in a blind spot of the cameras.

“How did everything go?” Felicity asked them.

“Everything went well,” Shado assured her with quiet voice. “All hostages are released. Whatever those guys have been after is destroyed.”

Felicity felt a weight she hadn’t known she had been carrying fall off from her. Everything was alright. The mission had been ended well.

“Are the two of you okay?” she wondered. Shado nodded and Felicity sighed. “Thank God. And thank you so much for helping me with this. I didn’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t helped.”

“We owed you,” Shado replied, while Slade stayed mum. He had had his arms crossed in front of his chest and looked from Shado to Felicity and back every once in a while. “We owe you so much more, and I wish we could do so much more for you.”

“Actually…” Felicity said hesitatingly, “there might be something.”

Shado perked her eyebrows, while the expression in Slade’s face darkened. He still didn’t trust or like her or whatever, Felicity thought.

“My city,” she started, “needs help. Crime is crazy there and… I want to help the city, but I cannot do this on my own, and I cannot do this without training. I need help, and you seem like the kind of people who could help me find a routine. Come to Starling and help me. I need your help.”

Felicity was feeling breathless which, considering how many times she had spoken way longer and faster than this, especially during a babbling. She watched Shado and Slade closely, waiting for their reaction, but both of them stayed unmoving.

“I know it is a lot to ask,” Felicity hastily said,” but you offered your help and I thought I-“

“I wish we could help you,” Shado interrupted her. She stepped forward and took both of Felicity’s hands into hers. She looked at Felicity intensely. “But Slade and I… we just got back from the island. Thanks to you, yes, but… We want to start a life, a new life with less danger around us. We want to live like normal people do. I know it is not fair to-“

“It is okay,” Felicity assured her. “I know I was asking too much. The life that I have chosen-“

 _It only ends one way_ , it resounded in her head, but the memory of the conversation she had had with Oliver the night they had buried Sara’s body in her old grave.

“It is a dangerous one and it doesn’t leave much room for normality, so I understand that you cannot join me.”

Shado smiled softly, guilt showing in her eyes. She wrapped her arms around Felicity’s shoulders and hugged her tightly. Felicity let her and hugged her back.

“We will always be in your debt,” Shado said, “and I cannot form any words to tell you how grateful I am. You saved all of us without knowing who we are.”

Felicity let the words wash over her. She had told Oliver that he hadn’t been the Arrow for people to thank him. Still, it felt good to hear that people were grateful.

“If there is any emergency, we are only one call away,” Slade said when Shado and Felicity pulled apart. Felicity gazed at him and he reached out his hand for her. “Thank you, kid.”

Felicity nodded, shaking his hand.

“Bye,” Shado whispered, taking Slade hands into hers and looking at Felicity one more time. “And thank you.”

Felicity only smiled sadly and watched the two of them leave.

Now might be a reason to worry, she realized. She felt like she was back at the beginning because she had nobody to team up with, nobody to train her, nobody to help her.

And she was no closer to feeling able to tell Oliver the truth, either.

What was she supposed to do?


	7. Chapter 7

“You okay?” Felicity asked worriedly, looking at Oliver over the frame of her glasses without lowering her tablet on which she had opened a news app and was trying to figure out if there had been anything going on in Starling City during her absence.

“Sure. Why?” Oliver asked, letting the last items fall into his suitcase and closing it.

“Because that was like the hundredth sigh of you this morning,” Felicity replied. “Not enough sleep last night?”

Oliver smirked at her and licked his lips, making Felicity grin widely. When they had left the party last night, they had headed back to the hotel and had spent hours just worshipping each other’s body and making love in the dark of the night. Even when the tiredness had increased more and more, they hadn’t been able or at least hadn’t been willing to let go of one another right then. So when their alarm had woken them early this morning, both of them had still been tired.

“I don’t want to leave just yet,” Oliver explained, sitting down on the edge of the bed and putting a hand to her knee. “I like being here with you.”

“You’re still going to be with me when we are back in Starling,” Felicity said, switched off her tablet and slid closer to Oliver on the mattress. “It’s not like I will magically disappear or anything.”

Oliver turned his head to her and pecked her lips shortly. “Lucky me.”

“Lucky you,” Felicity agreed with a nod of her head and a joyful smile.

They leaned towards each other once again, so their lips met in a slow, gentle kiss. Oliver put one hand to the back of her neck, so he could bend her head back a little and slide his tongue into her mouth shortly, exploring the roof of her mouth. When Felicity’s stomach grumbled, they chuckled into each other’s mouth.

“We gotta leave the room in a few minutes anyway,” Felicity said with a kind of embarrassed smile when they pulled apart. “No time for this until we are back home in Starling.”

Oliver nodded, patting the outside of her thigh shortly. “How about you go downstairs and order some lunch already, so we can get you fed before we will be taken to the airport and I’ll take care that we check out properly in the meantime?”

“You’re sure?” Felicity asked and Oliver nodded, so she pressed her lips to his once again and mumbled a quiet “Thank you” against them before taking her tablet and her purse and leaving.

While she waited for the elevator, she thought about what she needed to do next when they were back in Starling City. She really needed help with her mission. Things between Oliver and her were so wonderful. She didn’t want to mess that up by lying to him forever. She wanted to let him in, but-

Felicity interrupted her thoughts by shaking her head. She couldn’t go back there again. Her thoughts were always circling around the same problem. What she needed was a solution. She needed a solution and that meant that she needed someone to help her with her Green Arrow work. She needed someone to train her and to guide her and to support her.

She just needed to figure out who this person could be.

When she entered the restaurant, she took a short look around and chose a table in the edge of the room. She just couldn’t completely relax as long as she was still in Moscow. Something about the city and the people in it and everything that had happened here, made her feel paranoid. She’d only be able to fully relax when she’d be back home in Starling. So a table next to a wall where nothing could happen in her back seemed like the right place for her.

As soon as she had taken a seat, the waiter asked if he could get her something to drink, so Felicity ordered a glass of water and the menu. She leaned back into the chair exhaustedly. She still whished things with Nyssa hadn’t gone that wrong and Slade and Shado had agreed to come to Starling with her.

Felicity closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She felt tired, but unlike Oliver’s, her tiredness didn’t come from the little sleep she had had last night and more from everything that had happened here. Sometimes it felt like her brain was going to burst from all the new developments – Oliver’s and her relationship had process, Nyssa’s and her possible friendship had ended before it had been able to begin in the first place and Shado and Slade had disappeared from her life just as quickly as they had come into it.

The moment Felicity sensed a movement, her eyes snapped open and she straightened up in her seat. She expected to find the waiter in front of her, but instead a man in his forties with a heavy beard and a slightly bruised face sat in the seat on the other side of the table, looking at her wordlessly. The expression in his eyes was intense and it made a cold shiver run down Felicity’s spine.

“Mr. Knyazev,” she said and couldn’t help the slight shaking of her voice.

“People who save my life can call me Anatoli,” he replied, leaned back in his seat like Felicity had before and folded his hands on his chest. His eyes never left her face. Instead they kept staring intensely. “Felicity Megan Smoak.”

Felicity’s facial expression didn’t change at the sound of her name. Anatoli was the leader of the Bratva after all. He had more resources than most other people probably had. Of course he knew who she was. Or maybe Shado and Slade had told him. Anyway, she had known that he would find out one way or the other. She just hadn’t necessarily thought that he would come by to meet her.

“I am glad I found the possibility to talk to you before you leave Russia later today,” Anatoli continued when Felicity stayed silent. “Not many people would have done what you have done. You saved a complete stranger.”

“Wasn’t the first time,” Felicity replied mindlessly.

“I figured that,” Anatoli replied with an unreadable expression in his eyes.

Felicity still stayed silent and only watched Anatoli. She had only met him shortly when she had been in Russia with Oliver and John in the original run of time. She hadn’t known what to think of him, but she knew hat Oliver had trusted him. When Oliver had saved Anatoli’s life, the leader of the Bratva had offered him friendship in return. Felicity wondered whether Anatoli was going to do the same for her. Even if she had saved his life, just like Oliver had, she was so very different from Oliver. And she wasn’t sure that Anatoli thought that she was just as worth his friendship as Oliver had been.

“To prove to you how grateful I am,” Anatoli said like reading her mind and reached into the pocket of his jacket, “I want you to have this.”

He opened his fist to show her what he had pulled out of his jacket and Felicity’s eyebrows perked slightly when she saw the necklace in the Bratva leader’s hand. Attached to the small link chain was a medallion, a symbol Felicity had never seen before. It definitely wasn’t the Bratva star Oliver had worn on his chest. Felicity had memorized that tattoo during all the times she had watched him on the salmon ladder.

“This necklace was supposed to be my daughter’s,” Anatoli explained with quiet voice. “She died before I could give it to her. After what you did for me, I consider you my daughter and because of that you should carry this necklace. It will grant you access to all our resources. The ones in Starling City and the ones everywhere else in the world. The medallion will be proof to the captains and other Bratva members that you are family to me.”

Saying that, he pulled away the fabric of his shirt and showed the tattoo he wore at the same spot Oliver had carried his Bratva tattoo. Anatoli’s tattoo was the same sign as the medallion.

“As far as I know any favor costs a reciprocal favor,” Felicity replied doubtingly. The fact that she had helped Anatoli to escape the Amazo and the island didn’t mean that she wanted to get any deeper into the crimes of the Bratva than necessary. And she was definitely sure that she didn’t want to owe the Bratva any favors. She could imagine what kind of favors that would be.

“I will take care of that,” Anatoli replied. “You demand favors. I will take care of the reciprocal favors for you.”

Felicity still hesitated. The Bratva had resources, helpful resources. And having access to them at least in cases of emergencies, could spare Felicity a lot of worries. She could do so much more when she had the Bratva in the back of her hand. They wouldn’t be any help in training her or fulfilling her mission on a regular basis, but they could help when there were extremes, just like the League had helped her with Malcolm Merlyn. There were too many threats, she couldn’t fight alone.

“Please take it,” Anatoli urged and held his hand closer to her.

She still wasn’t sure whether this was a good idea, but Felicity took the necklace from him and let it sink into her purse. She could still think about what she was going to do with that when she was back in Starling City and had had more time to think about all of this. Making Anatoli angry by refusing to accept his present didn’t seem like the smartest decision.

Felicity waited for Anatoli to leave, but he stayed unmoving where he was and just looked at her. Nervously Felicity shot a glance over his shoulder to the entrance of the restaurant. Hopefully Oliver needed a little more time. She didn’t want him to meet Anatoli. He hadn’t been supposed to meet Shado and Slade in the first place, but meeting Anatoli after that would only increase his doubts.

“I know that you are responsible for my old friend’s death, at least partly. Dimitri and I have been friends for years. He was like a brother to me. His kids were my family,” Anatoli explained instead of leaving. “I should have expected his betrayal, but I didn’t.”

Felicity’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“His family will be killed for what he did,” Anatoli added. “It is Bratva law.”

Felicity’s stomach cramped at the thought. She didn’t want people to die. She didn’t want anyone to die. She hadn’t even wanted Dimitri Bukov to die. Nyssa had made that decision and put a death sentence on him. She hadn’t wanted that.

But Felicity knew that she didn’t have a say in this, not really. But she needed to at least try.

“Is there any possibility to save them?” she asked. “I don’t want anyone to die.”

“I fear that that is impossible. I can’t ignore the law.”

Of course he couldn’t, Felicity thought bitterly. “Could you at least consider sparing his wife and his kids and his sister-in-law?”

Anatoli frowned. “Why?”

“Because I ask you to,” Felicity replied boldly. “I saved your life, and I know I cannot save everyone, but I want to at least save the people that I can save. His wife and his kids… I mean… they are kids. And… I met his sister-in-law and… I don’t think she deserves death. I don’t think she even wants to be part of that family.”

Anatoli looked at her for a long moment before he nodded his head slightly, agreeing to her request. Saving his life seemed to be something big for him, Felicity realized.

“And there is something else I need to ask you.” Anatoli kept quiet and just continued to look at her. “I want the Bratva out of Queen Consolidated. The company is owned by my boyfriend’s family, and I don’t want it to be used for arm trafficking.”

“I fear I cannot grant you that wish, Felicity,” he answered quietly. “We need the company or otherwise a lot of our revenue will disappear. You have to understand that I cannot do this, even if it is you asking.”

Felicity nodded sadly. Of course he couldn’t.

“I will keep an eye open for an alternative, though,” he promised, getting up and closing the zipper of his jacket. “It was a pleasure meeting you. Keep in mind that I am always only one call away. In case you ever need help.”

Felicity nodded again, and Anatoli winked at her. It felt strange to be winked at by a Bratva leader, but she smiled at him a little.

Only one call away, she thought while watching Anatoli leave. That had been the second time she had heard those words within the last hours. But one call away could be pretty far away considering the distance between Starling and Moscow or Australia.

She needed someone in Starling. Constantly and not only for emergencies.

 

 

“It’s still awkward, right?”

“So awkward,” everyone agree to Laurel’s question, nodding their heads and taking sips of their coffees to distract themselves from the awkward atmosphere between them.

Oliver and Felicity had come into the coffee shop half an hour ago and when Laurel, Tommy and Sara had come in fifteen minutes later, they had said hello and somehow it had ended in everyone agreeing that they should just share a table because they were kind of friends after all.  
And it felt just as weird as it had when they had had that awkward dinner with Robert weeks ago.

“How was the trip to Russia?” Tommy asked.

“Great,” Oliver repeated immediately. “It was great.”

And again silence settled. It seemed like they just couldn’t find any topic that was able to keep the silence away for more than eleven sentences. So they all kept drinking their coffees in silence, shooting uncomfortable glances at one another every once in a while.

“Will this ever feel less awkward?” Felicity asked quietly.

“Hopefully,” Sara answered.

“Maybe we just need to meet each other more often,” Tommy suggested.

“So we can get used to the awkwardness,” Laurel added quietly with a smile.

“Would be nice,” Oliver answered. “Not the awkwardness, but seeing each other more often.”

“Yes, it would be,” Tommy said with a nod of his head, taking another sip from his coffee.

Seven sentences, Felicity thought. Wasn’t that far away from their eleven!

Felicity leaned back in her chair and smiled at Oliver shortly when she felt his hand on her knee under the table, squeezing comfortingly or reassuringly or whatever.

They were good. They spent even more time with each other now and with everyone knowing that they were together it was awkward because of course there were rumors, but it was also much easier to find time between their jobs and Felicity’s little secret for them to spent time together.

Regarding her secret Felicity was no closer to a solution than she had been when they had left Moscow. The necklace Anatoli had given her was hidden in one of her drawers since Felicity didn’t want to wear it but couldn’t just trash it, either.  
Yao Fei had sent her a gift, too. Two days after she had returned from Moscow she had received a package and when she had opened it, she had found a very familiar hood in it.

So she had a necklace and a hood, but she still didn’t have a trainer or a partner or anything like that. It was like the details were worked out, but the basic structure was still missing.

“How are things with the club going?” Oliver asked Tommy.

“I finally decided on a name,” Tommy answered.

“And that is?” Oliver asked.

“Verdant.”

Tommy looked from Oliver to Felicity and winked at her. Felicity had been the one to suggest the name. Tommy and Oliver had thought about a name for a long time and hadn’t found any. Tommy had bugged Felicity until she had said the first name that had come into her mind. Verdant. The club Tommy was going to open in the old Queen Consolidated factory. Felicity had told him about the location, too. It just seemed nice to have more things from her old life here in-

“Hi.”

Felicity’s head snapped up to see a very familiar brunette coming closer with an insecure smile. In jeans and pullover Nyssa just looked so much friendlier and so much more normal than she did when she was in her League outfit.

“Hi,” Felicity replied surprised.

She hadn’t heard anything of Nyssa since she had left after they had fought about Nyssa’s brutal approach in Russia. Ever since Felicity hadn’t heard anything of the assassin and had actually been sure that Nyssa had returned to Nanda Parbat since Felicity had never understood what exactly Nyssa had been doing in Starling and why she had been helping her in the first place.

“Mind if I sit down?” Nyssa asked, pointing at an empty chair at the table.

Felicity hesitated, unsure whether she really wanted Nyssa here right now, but Sara already pushed the empty chair next to her back and said, “Sure. I’m Sara. That is my sister Laurel, her boyfriend Tommy, you seem to already know Felicity and maybe even Oliver?”

“No, I just knew Felicity until now,” Nyssa replied. “I am Nyssa by the way.”

“And how do you know each other?” Oliver asked.

Before Felicity could make up any possible lie or half-truth or whatever, Nyssa replied, “I am a friend. Felicity and I met a while ago and then back again few days ago when she asked for my help. She wants me to train her.”

“Train you?” Oliver asked, looking at Felicity. “In what?”

“Self-defense,” Felicity answered immediately.

Oliver frowned, his hand squeezing her knee again when he looked at her with worry in his eyes. Felicity put her hand to his and shook her head with a smile, wordlessly saying that everything was alright.

“Sounds cool,” Sara said. “Do you do that professionally?”

“Oh no,” Nyssa laughed and Felicity wondered if she had ever heard her doing that. She really couldn’t remember. “I am… uhm… I am living from my father’s money to be honest.”

“Nothing to be ashamed of,” Laurel said. “I know to other people who have done that until a few weeks ago.”

Oliver and Tommy both looked down, knowing exactly that they were meant.

The continued sitting there and talking and laughing and getting to know each other. Felicity noticed that she wasn’t the only one seeing that there was something going on between Nyssa and Sara already. Call it chemistry or whatever, but there was something between them and Felicity wasn’t the only one who noticed. Laurel observed the two of them with the joyful smile of a happy big sister. When Laurel’s and Felicity’s gaze met, they both smiled knowingly.

After Nyssa had joined them, the silence didn’t come back. There was always someone talking and to Felicity’s surprise the six of them together had actually kind of fun. Nyssa seemed so normal, so not-assassin-like and for the first time Felicity felt like she really understood how Sara had been able to fall in love with Nyssa. She hadn’t seen enough of Nyssa to understand it before today.

Oliver squeezed her knee once more and when Felicity looked at him, they both smiled at each other. Felicity rested her head at his shoulder and closed her eyes to enjoy the feeling of his strong arm wrapping around her waist for a short moment.

For the first time it seemed like there was hope for her to finally be able to open up to him. She had Nyssa now and when Nyssa was going to act the way she acted now more often and stopped killing everyone in her way, there seemed to be a real chance for the two of them to be friends and partners. Felicity could learn from Nyssa and find a real modus operandi that was going to allow her find a routine in her mission.

And then she could finally tell Oliver and let him in on her life completely.  
The sooner, the better.


End file.
